


Accidental Relocation

by Darkchi13



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Clint is a stalker, He and Iron-Man do not get along, Headaches, JARVIS is Awesome, Kidnapping, M/M, Messing with Tony, Natasha is scary, Peter Has Issues, Peter isn't where he should be, So is Bruce, Spider-Man is a troll, Steve is friggin adorable, Teleportation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 19:49:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7727581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkchi13/pseuds/Darkchi13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So it turned out that Doc Ock was craftier then he thought. Now Peter had a whole pile of new problems to deal with starting with the Avengers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Spider-man landed upside down on the warehouse wall. What was it with warehouses? Did all villains share an obsession with the buildings or was it just his? He peered in through the window; there by a computer was none other than Doctor Octopus. Spider-man had heard a rumor that the man was building a teleport, which was the last thing the superhero needed. It looked like the Doctor was almost finished; he was holding a circular metal device and was turning a dial on it. 

‘Well time to make my entrance,” Spider-man thought.

He opened the window, swung in and grabbed the teleport right out of the other man’s hands. 

“You should share your toys Doc,” he chided him. 

The hero investigated the device in his hands with interest. It was complicated and looked like a lot of work had gone into making it. 

“Well color me impressed, you did a good job with this, too bad you won’t get to use it.”

His head jerked up when he heard the larger man start to laugh.

“Oh I never planned on using it Spider-man. It’s a gift for you.”

Doc Ock hit a button on his computer and Spider-man felt the whole world whirl around him. His eyes closed on instinct as he fought the urge to vomit. Once the world had stopped spinning he opened his eyes again. The device turned to ash in his hands and he stumbled back a step until he hit a wall. He spent a minute vainly trying not to regurgitate his lunch. Once the urge had passed he glanced around his surroundings warily; what he saw made him smile in relief. So much for the teleport, all it had managed to do was send him to the other side of the city. The young man recognized the ally since he knew New York like the back of his hand.   
He wanted to head back to give the good doctor a piece of his mind, but something stopped him. There was a vague sense that something wasn’t right, not quite his spider sense but he decided to be on the cautious side anyway. He stepped further into the ally and took out the bag he kept tied to his suit. He always made sure to have his camera, clothes, some money, and extra web cartridges in case of moments like this. Peter quickly pulled his clothes on over the suit and put the mask back in the bag before heading out into the street. 

Almost immediately he could see that he wasn’t in the same New York after all. The giant tower with an A on it, that had replaced the Oscorp building, drove the point home nicely. Peter quietly moved to get a look at a newspaper. The date was the same, but the main story was about some alien invasion, which he was sure he would have noticed if it had happened. 

‘Alternate dimension?’ he though worriedly. 

Well first things first: information. He headed off towards the public library and was relieved to see that the city still had the same layout. That would make it easier to move about; all the traffic and police cams were in the same places too. He aimed a shy smile at the librarian and headed towards a free computer. He wasn’t sure why but he found it hard to talk to people without his mask. 

The first thing he typed in was “Alien Invasion”. Peter released a low whistle at the result; those were some ugly aliens. He went through the article and discovered some superhero team called the Avengers. Intrigued he searched for more information on them.

Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, and Black Widow; staring at them he realized absently that they were all gorgeous. Sure some of them were older but they all made him lick his lips self-consciously. He hadn’t dated since Gwen; time had only slightly dulled the pain of her death. There was a little part of him that, staring at the superheroes on the screen, whispered that he wouldn’t have to protect them, wouldn’t need to worry about failing them. It wouldn’t matter though he told himself firmly. He would not be meeting them, and would never have the chance to; it was probably best not to bother them with a second rate vigilante like himself anyways. Besides a little kid would be all they would see when looking at him. Peter couldn’t tell if the spider DNA had halted his aging or just slowed it down, he really hoped it was the second option. Either way he was 21 and still looked 17. Not exactly someone you wanted to get in a relationship with. 

Suddenly he realized that he had been staring at their faces for several minutes, their unmasked faces. Numbly he went on to read the article. The whole world knew who these heroes really were. Peter couldn’t imagine it. He had always had this tiny desire to be known about, but there was no way he could ever do it; even in this world where no one knew him could he imagine telling people. 

Tony Stark was Iron Man; billionaire and a genius. Peter’s fingers itched to examine the Iron Man suit. He could tell that it was highly technologically advanced; what was the glowing circle though? Possibly a power source?

Bruce Banner was the Hulk. He had to be pretty awesome to have a definite article in front of his name. Another genius, though Peter hoped he never had to run into the man’s alter ego. He had the feeling that it wouldn’t be pretty. If only he could talk to these two men about science, he could die happy.

Thor, a God. Peter knew the myths and legends from Viking lore of course, but he was reasonably sure they didn’t exist in his world. Again his fingers were itching to look at Thor’s hammer, the weapon that is, not the appendage. 

Steve Rogers was Captain America. Steve was the hero that Peter felt the most similar to, power wise that was; his and Bruce’s origin stories were closer, with both being an accident. Captain America’s abilities seemed to be quite a bit like Spider-man’s. They were both stronger and faster than normal men. Both having more endurance, Spider-man appeared to be more flexible though.

To his interest Peter could find nothing on Black Widow or Hawkeye. Their real names were not available and he could find no background information on either of them. He did notice the symbol on both of their suits and looked it up; he found that it was the logo for SHIELD: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Well that cinched it, he would definitely be avoiding those heroes; Peter wanted nothing to do with a government agency. He turned his mind from the Avengers and started looking at the rest of the world. Their history was pretty much the same; same wars, presidents and money. There were some people here that weren’t in his world though, and some people in his world that weren’t here. 

Their science was absolutely fascinating. Peter spent hours reading papers written by Bruce Banner and other geniuses. He hadn’t realized how much time had passed until a librarian tapped his shoulder. 

“We’re closing sir.”

Peter thanked her and headed out. Now he needed to figure out what to do; he needed to earn some money so he could get some technology. He wanted to figure out a way of getting home as soon as possible. 

It was as he was walking down the street that he saw the glint in an ally, one that wasn’t supposed to be there. He casually moved past the camera’s sensors before finding a way up to perch in its blind spot. This camera didn’t belong in the ally; it wasn’t there in his universe. He examined it closely and found the Stark logo on it; looked like Tony Stark was keeping an eye on the city. Studying the camera gave him an idea and Peter sat on the wall indecisive. The streets were dark so he didn’t have to worry about being seen and he could take the time to think. 

On one hand it would be going against his ethics and not making waves policy, on the other hand it would make his life much easier. It was illegal for Tony to have these up anyways, invasion of privacy, he reasoned with himself. His mind made up he quickly opened the camera to look at it. The technology was complicated and beautiful. Peter carefully took the camera apart and then went to find someplace he could study it. Tomorrow he would see about exploring the rest of the city and making plans.

Up in the Avengers tower a blinking let came on.

“Sir, one of your cameras has been disabled.”


	2. Chapter 2

A couple days passed and Peter didn’t feel nearly as guilty about the camera as he originally had. The young man had learned some new facts in that time period and he wasn’t overly impressed with the heroes anymore. It turned out that while the Avengers were good for large events, like aliens, they were useless with the small things. None of the heroes came out to help the people; sure they had prevented an alien invasion but where were they when a woman was being raped or a man mugged. Maybe Spiderman was just a small picture kind of man while the Avengers focused on the larger shot. 

“Peter, darling, could you lift this for me?”

The man in question smiled at the older women and headed over to help. He had discovered, after taking apart the camera that several parts of New York were still rebuilding. Naturally he had started helping out, Aunt May had trained him well, in any way he could. The rebuilding worked well in Peter’s favor; he helped people clean and fix up their houses and they fed him in return, he was having some money troubles, which was awesome. He also offered to help with any malfunctioning electronic devices. As a result he was learning a great deal about their technology. Peter was rather proud of his proficiency. Sure, his situation sucked but he loved learning new things. 

The whole rebuilding thing was something else that was pissing him off. Where were the heroes now? Half of this mess was caused by them and yet none of them could be there to help clean it up. Granted, Tony Stark had donated a crap ton of money for the fixing of the city but he never showed up personally. The only decent one, he figured, was Captain America. The captain supposedly showed up to help whenever he was available. It was a couple of hours later that a sandwich was shoved into his hands. 

“Sit.”

Peter accepted the sandwich and offered the middle aged woman a smile.

“Thanks Angie.”

She smiled back and patted his shoulder.

“You’re welcome dear. Now you are to relax for at least fifteen minutes.”

Peter made a face but plopped himself down on a large piece of rubble.

“Oh, and Peter, could you look at my phone for me? It’s stopped taking pictures,” she said with a huff. 

Peter laughed and accepted the phone as well. The sandwich disappeared in no time and soon he had his head bent towards the phone. 

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Lawson.”

Peter ignored the mellow young voice in favor of opening the back of the phone to get a better look. 

“Oh Steve, I keep telling you to call me Angie.”

Peter continued to pay no attention to the conversation going on over his head; he was too engrossed in the phone and barely heard it. As a result he jumped when he felt a nudge to his shoulder and quickly glanced up. He almost dropped the phone as well as his jaw in his quick rush to stand. Standing in front of him, looking rather amused, was Captain America.

“You’re Captain America,” he blurted out and then flushed.

Smooth Peter Smooth. 

“Yes I am,” smiled the captain. “But you can call me Steve.”

Peter shook the hand offered to him in a daze before remembering to introduce himself.

“Oh, I’m Peter, Peter Parker.”

He couldn’t help but study the hero as he turned to talk to Angie again. Jesus, the man was built. He was taller than Peter by a couple inches, but where Peter was slender and flexible, this man was pure muscle and attractive, very attractive. Peter had planned on avoiding the heroes, and here he was meeting one less than a week after his arrival. 

‘What kind of luck is this?’ Peter silently wondered, before forcing his attention back to the phone.

Ten minutes later he wandered over to where Angie and the Captain were working. Well the Captain was working and Angie was talking. Peter politely waited for a break in the conversation, noticing that Captain America seemed to have no problem lifting heavy rock and talking at the same time. Sure, Peter could do it too, but he had to act like he couldn’t which was a bit of a pain.

“Here’s your phone Angie,” he said and handed the device over.

The older women took it, snapped a photo of Steve Rodgers, and texted it to a friend. Seconds later she beamed up at Peter happily.

“Thank you dear.”

“No problem,” he replied with a smile. “I’m going to get back to work now.”

He quickly headed over to a different section of the house. He figured that Captain America wouldn’t be interested in him so it should be safe to work nearby. 

“So you’re good with phones?”

Or not; Peter glanced up uncertainly but, yep, that slightly hesitant voice did belong to Captain America, in all his muscly flesh. The young man quickly turned his eyes back to the wheelbarrow he was filling with rubble, trying in vain not to blush. Peter had been in the hero’s presence less than an hour and already he had a massive crush on him. 

‘You’re hopeless,’ he thought to himself before answering the older man.

“I guess.”

“Could you help me with mine?” 

Peter forgot about his work and jerked his head up to stare at the Captain. The man was holding out a phone and after a couple second he accepted it.

“Wow,” he breathed. “This is incredible.”

It was clearly the newest Stark phone; Peter’s fingers were already itching to pull it apart but he refrained. He pulled his eyes away from the beautiful device to look at Mr. Rogers. 

“What exactly do you need help with?” he asked.

Peter shifted his mental process into tutor mode; it always helped him when dealing with other people, and resulted in him being less shy. 

“Everything,” the older man replied with a sigh. “Tony made it especially for me, but I can’t understand any of it, and every time he tries to help me I just end up more confused.”

Peter snorted in amusement before taking a closer look at the phone.

“You’re from the 40’s right?”

“Yes, that’s correct,” the soldier said confused.

“No wonder you’re having problems then. If you’re used to a dial phone this is going to be much too complicated for you.”

“I’ve considered getting something else,” Mr. Rogers admitted. “But I don’t want to hurt Tony’s feelings.”

Peter could only stare at the hero amazed. How could a man like this: handsome, strong, protective, and kind exist? He quickly forced his mind back to the problem; glancing around at the other volunteers he got an idea.

“I have a solution that might fix that.”

Steve tilted his head slightly in a silent question and Peter flushed again. He quickly looked away from the handsome man in front of him.

“There are many people here that lost their phones in the invasion. With all the rebuilding, they don’t have the money to get new ones,” he explained. “Mr. Stark could hardly fault you for giving your phone away to someone that needs it. You could then just buy a new one, something less complicated.”

He looked back at him in time to see a smile spread across his face.

‘This guy is too gorgeous for his own good.’

“That’s an excellent idea Peter, except I have no idea how to shop for a phone,” Mr. Rogers admitted.

“I could help you,” Peter offered. 

Steve’s smile brightened, making Peter want to bask in the glow forever, before clasping the younger man’s shoulder gratefully.

“Would you? I would greatly appreciate it.”

“Sure,” Peter nodded.

“I’ll be right back then.”

Peter watched the other head off, presumably to give his phone to someone, before sighing. He was supposed to be avoiding the heroes, not offering to go phone shopping with one. He blamed Steve Rogers; the man made him feel like a clumsy 15 year old boy. It wasn’t long before the Captain returned and the two men waved good bye to Angie. Peter followed the soldier as he headed off across the street.

“The closest shop is on 4th and Victoria,” Peter said and received a nod.

“Do you have a vehicle?”

“Ah, no,” Peter admitted. “I tend to walk everywhere.”

Actually he had spent two days doing a scan of the whole city, learning where all of Stark’s cameras were, so he actually preferred using the roof tops to get around when he could. It wasn’t quite as fast as web slinging but until he could get the materials to make more web he couldn’t risk it. Plus there was that whole avoiding attention thing. 

“I’ll drive then.”

“What-” Peter cut himself off with a whistle.

Mr. Rogers was walking towards a magnificent motorcycle and Peter caught up quickly.

“Wow, she’s beautiful.”

The super soldier placed a hand on the bike’s handlebars proudly. 

“Thanks.”

He proceeded to straddle the bike and glanced at Peter with a smile.

“Get on and hold tight. I’m a good driver but you don’t have a helmet.”

Peter could only stare for a moment and Steve frowned.

“Is something wrong?”

The young man snapped out of it and shook his head with a wry smile.

“No, I’m just going for a ride on Captain America’s motorcycle to help him pick out a phone.”

The soldier chuckled and Peter finally got on the bike behind him.

‘No feeling him up Parker,’ Peter told himself firmly. 

He couldn’t help but lean in against the other man as he took off fast though. Peter hadn’t really had much experience with relationships, just Gwen really, but he was starting to think he might be bi. He really shouldn’t be this turned on by a strong solid back. Peter quickly had to think non sexy thoughts. He really didn’t want Captain America to notice he had a hard on for him. He still enjoyed the ride though. The Captain drove faster and Peter let out a loud whoop as they turned a corner. He was a little disappointed when they arrived at their destination. He had to lean in close and yell in Steve’s ear to be heard over the wind.

“Park on the right.”

They were both grinning widely as they got off the bike. 

“So you like motorcycles then?” Steve asked and Peter nodded even though this was his first time on one.

“I’m a bit of an adrenaline junky,” he admitted. 

“Me too,” the other man chuckled. 

Peter led the way into the shop; it was highly amusing to see the only employee’s mouth drop when Captain America followed him in. 

“Do you have any flip phones?” Peter asked the worker.

The man snapped out of his daze and led them over. There were only two models on display, since everyone wanted a smart phone these days, and Peter looked them over carefully.

“Could he see a working one?” Peter asked, using Captain America’s presence shamelessly. 

Steve gave him an admonishing look which Peter ignored as the man hurried off to grab one. 

“This is an older model,” he explained. “It should be much less complicated than your previous one.”

The man soon returned with the phone which he handed over. Peter thanked him with a smile, watching in amusement as the man blushed when Steve did so as well; he fully ignored the fact that he had done the exact same thing ten minutes ago, before turning to show it to the Captain. 

“This is how you call someone,” Peter demonstrated. “And this is how you text.”

He showed the man how to use T9 and how to add a new contact.

“Aside from that, the phones pretty simple. There are a couple of tools you can use like ‘notes,’ ‘schedule,’ and an alarm clock.”

Peter showed those to Steve as well and then smiled. 

“So what do you think?”

The hero shot him a brief smile; he was looking over the two different models, before nodding. 

“I’ll take this one.”

Peter stood near the door and tried not to laugh as the employee rushed to help Steve. The man was trying to give the phone away for free but the hero was insisting on paying for it. The whole thing ended with the kid asking for an autograph. Peter was hiding his smile when Steve finally finished and walked over to him.

“Can I give you a ride somewhere?”

Peter shook his head with a smile.

“Nah, I have some business in the area anyways.”

The older man nodded and shook Peter’s hand.

“Thank you for the help,” he said warmly.

“No worries,” Peter said with a shrug.

“But you did me a great service today Peter,” Steve protested.

Peter didn’t respond to that and just offered the man a good-bye wave before walking away. He couldn’t help but sigh in relief when he heard the motorcycle start up. That would be the last he saw of the hero; New York was a big place after all. 

He knew there was a building in the area that he could nap in for a couple hours. Then he would head out; make sure there weren’t any robberies that night. Tomorrow he would have to start working harder. He couldn’t risk getting attached to this place. No matter how nice the eye candy was, it wasn’t his home.


	3. Chapter 3

“Peter!”

Peter Parker stopped in his tracks with a sigh. He recognized that voice; strong and mellow at the same time, it could only belong to Steve Rodgers. Turning around he spotted the blond soldier heading his way. 

“Mr. Rodgers,” he greeted the captain politely.

“Call me Steve,” the man responded with a smile. “You’re a hard man to find Peter.”

Peter shifted his weight and tried not to look guilty. It wasn’t that he had been avoiding the man… just he had a long list of stuff to do and befriending Captain America wasn’t on it. 

“Is there something I can do for you Mr…Steve?” he asked.

To his bemusement the taller man blushed slightly. 

“Ah, well, could you look at my phone for me,” he asked sheepishly and Peter’s mouth dropped.

“You’ve only had it for a couple weeks,” he exclaimed incredulously. 

Steve’s face reddened even more and he ran his fingers through his hair. 

“It’s Tony’s fault,” he protested weakly. 

Peter made the mistake of looking into the man’s eyes and internally swore. Curse that Avenger’s puppy eyes.

“Follow me and tell me what happened,” he ordered.

Steve fell into step beside him and complied. 

“Tony had a device he wanted to test. It was a shock wave or something; it succeeded in sending me across the room but it also did something to my phone,” the older man explained. 

‘Odd,’ Peter thought. ‘Someone as smart as Tony Stark should have expected that.’

“It sounds more like an energy wave or something,” he commented out loud as he led Steve into the busy square.

Mentally he was comparing the different kinds of energy and which ones would be the most successful at throwing a person back. It would be a good weapon if someone got too close when fighting. 

“A farmer’s market?” Steve asked as he looked around. 

“Yeah,” Peter nodded. “I have a booth here fixing broken tech.”

He led the soldier over to his booth, saying hi to the nearby venders as he did so. 

“Alright, let me look at your phone.”

Steve handed it over sheepishly and Peter looked it over. The screen was black and refused to turn on. He flipped it over to open the back and hummed. 

“I should be able to fix it, might take a while though.”

The young man was taking out his tools as he spoke and Steve smiled.

“I don’t mind waiting. I’ll wander around the market for a while.”

The only response he got was a grunt. Peter was already lost in the phone’s internal organs and human niceties were forgotten. Peter resurfaced thirty three minutes later. Glancing around he spotted Steve talking to one of the farmers and he headed over.

“It’s fixed,” he informed the man. 

Steve took the phone and beamed happily when it turned on. 

“Thanks Peter, How much do I owe you?”

“No charge.”

The other man frowned and shook his head.

“How much?” he insisted. 

Peter started to argue but, remembering the guy who sold Steve his phone, changed tactics. 

“How about you buy me lunch and we’re even.”

“Alright,” Steve agreed cheerfully. “What would you like?”

“Mr. Lawrence makes a mean sandwich,” he offered. 

When Steve nodded, he led the way. After they had ordered and were sitting down to eat Peter paused.

“Why did you bring your phone to me anyways?” He asked. “Why not have Mr. Stark fix it?”

Steve shifted a little and smiled.

“Tony means well but if I let him touch my phone he’d upgrade it and I rather like it the way it is.”

Peter laughed and they finished their meals in comfortable silence. Neither made a move to leave. 

“So why are you working at a farmer’s market anyways? Shouldn’t you be focusing on school?”

Peter turned towards Steve and shook his head self-consciously.

“I’m actually twenty one,” he admitted.

To his amusement Steve turned awkward and ran a hand through his hair. That was starting to look like a nervous tick of something.

“Oh, sorry.”

Peter couldn’t help but smile. The other man’s embarrassment was too adorable. It took away Peter’s own humiliation at still looking like a high schooler.

“It’s alright, I hear it a lot.”

The silence that between them was a little more awkward now until Steve broke it.

“Tony’s interested in you,” he blurted out and Peter’s head whipped toward him eyes wide. “I haven’t told him anything,” he reassured the smaller male. 

Peter sighed in relief and then frowned. 

“Why not?” he asked.

“You don’t look like an attention seeker,” Steve responded. “All he knows is that you’re a friend of mine that’s good with phones and that you helped me pick one out.”

Peter felt his throat close up for moment.

“Friend?” he asked.

Steve looked at him in surprise and nodded.

“Yeah, a friend.” 

He was studying Peter, with what looked like concern, so Peter turned his head away. 

“I don’t have many of those,” he admitted.

More like none really. He had only really had Aunt May and Gwen. He loved his aunt dearly but there were just some things he could not tell her. As for Gwen…well it was safe to say he hadn’t gone out of his way to forge new relationships. 

“Before I became Captain America I had one friend.”

Peter turned his head towards Steve when he started talking again. There was a sad smile on the man’s face as he reminisced. 

“He was fantastic and I made more as time went on. We became a family of sorts,” he said. “We even got a name. They called us the Howling Commandos” he chuckled.

Peter stared at him for a moment; he didn’t understand why he was being told this but as Steve continued talking he got a flash of insight. The older man was trying to cheer him up. He was being given a speech on how friends and family can show up when you least expect them. 

“I lost them all when I froze. When I woke up I thought I would never get over it. Those men meant the world to me and nobody could replace them, and no one did. Instead I found a whole new family.”

Peter smiled in acknowledgment. 

“The Avengers,” he commented and Steve hummed.

“We’re an interesting group,” he said dryly. “Tony is just…well he’s tony. He’s completely aggravating but then he does something absolutely brilliant and I can’t help but be impressed. Beneath his snarky outer shell lies a true human being I am glad to know.”

Peter nodded along; he was wondering why he was being told this but Steve looked so happy to be talking about his family that he stayed quiet. The soldier’s hands were moving animatedly as spoke and Peter felt a smile grow on his lips in response.

“And then Bruce is just as intelligent as Tony except in a different way. He’s just so quiet that you forget sometimes. I’ve taken to dragging him out to have fun; the man needs a little push to come out of his shell. He wants to help people so much but he never seems to think it’s good enough.”

Peter wasn’t sure what to think of this. Was this classified information? Then again Steve was only talking personalities so it was probably alright.

“Clint and Natasha aren’t home very often but when they are the house is a little more fun. Tony and Bruce have a tendency to hide in their workshops and they help to drag them out. Clint goes out of his way to scare Tony and the two of them have a prank war going on. The last one involved pudding, feathers and condoms.”

Peter opened his mouth to inquire but Steve shook his head.

“Don’t ask.”

Peter shut with mouth with a huff but then smiled and motioned for Steve to go on. 

“Natasha beats us at almost every board game we play. Clint does beat us at every card game. I’m sure he’s cheating but I haven’t been able to prove it.” 

Peter laughed at that and Steve grinned at him before continuing. 

“Thor isn’t around much either but he lends a whole new element to the family when he is. He’s so loud and exuberant; everything fascinates him and it’s so easy to get caught up in his wonder and happiness.”

Peter smile at the man and kicked his legs up so he could sit cross legged. 

“They sound wonderful,” he offered.

“They are,” Steve agreed.

There was a moment of silence before Steve started talking again. 

“What about your family?”

Again Peter felt his throat close up, for a different reason this time, and breathing became hard.

“My parents died when I was young,” he said. “I live with my Aunt May and Uncle Ben.”

He hadn’t planned on saying more but Steve was far too easy to talk to 

“Uncle Ben’s gone now, shot by a thief he was trying to stop.”

There was a bitter tone in Peter’s voice and he turned his head away from Steve to hide his face. He still felt the guilt and the grief even now; it was tempered by the good Spider-man had done but it was still there. He felt a large warm hand rest on his shoulder and took in a breath.

“Aunt May is fantastic though. She’s like a mother to me and is always working hard. Too hard,” he added with a frown. “She forgets her age sometimes.”

The hand on his shoulder squeezed gently before withdrawing. 

“She sounds wonderful,” Steve commented and Peter smiled. 

He turned to face the other man again now that he was more composed. Steve had a strange expression on his face; an expression of knowledge, as if he knew exactly how Peter felt. Peter quickly turned his head away again. The man had fought in a war, he had lost way more people then Peter had; of course he would understand, but Peter did not like how exposed that look had made him feel. He glanced around the market, noticed how much time had passed, and frowned. 

“I should probably get back to work,” He said as he turned back.

He thought he saw a flash of disappointment on Steve’s face before he nodded.

“I really enjoyed talking with you Peter; it’s nice to have someone I can just be friends with,” Steve laughed. 

‘Friend-zoned,’ Peter tried to hide his wince.

“No problem,” he replied. “I enjoyed this as well, it was fun.”

It had been too. Steve was easy to talk to and friendly. Peter hadn’t felt so normal since he had arrived in this universe. 

“What’s your number,” Steve said pulling out his phone.

Peter blinked before laughing sheepishly. 

“I don’t have one.” 

Steve looked confused so Peter shrugged.

“I don’t own a phone,” he explained. 

To his amusement Steve still looked confused.

“I thought everyone had a phone these days?”

Peter shrugged again.

“I’m not most people,” he responded dryly.  
He still had his cellphone from his universe but it wasn’t compatible here. He was using it and his camera to compare the different technologies. He had never bothered to get one in this universe. It would have been a waste of his meager cash and he didn’t have anyone he could call with it so it was kind of pointless. 

“Is there another way I could get a hold of you?” Steve asked. “I would like to do this again. You are very easy to talk to.” 

Peter looked a little confused but nodded.

“I’m usually here each weekend. You could also get a message to me through Angie.”

Steve smiled and clapped a hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“Then I will see you again.”

Peter watched him walk away, his eyes drifting downwards before he jerked them back up. ‘Stop it,’ he told himself. ‘Steve made it quite clear that we are only friends…still no harm in looking…right?' He dropped his eyes back to the man’s ass before sighing and returning to his booth. 

Once his butt was planted in his chair Peter let out a yawn. He had been out late last night and was a little tired. Normally being Spider-man was pretty easy, well depending on your definition of easy, but now he had to hide, avoid cameras, and avoid being seen which made it a lot harder.

He raised his head when someone sat in the chair across from him. He was a man, slightly shorter then Peter but he had a hood up and was wearing sunglasses. He looked shifty but his spider sense was quiet so Peter offered him a smile. 

“What can I do for you?”

“I want you to fix my phone,” the man replied. 

Peter took it with a frown and then gaped.

“This is the newest Stark phone. What could possibly be wrong with it?”

The man grinned. He sounded almost happy as he said-

“I don’t know it just stopped working.”

Peter didn’t bother responding as he was already opening the back. He figured out the problem pretty quickly and looked up to see the man staring at him. He was leaning closer, trying to see what Peter was doing with the phone. Peter hid a smile and slid the phone over, so it lay in between them, as he went into tutor mode.

“The problem lies here in the wires. “

Bending his head as he explained how he was fixing it he completely missed the amused smile that slid onto the other man’s face. Once he had the phone fixed Peter handed it over with a satisfied smile. 

“Good job kid. You want a job?”

Peter blinked in confusion.

“Sorry, What?”

The man pulled off his sunglasses and lowered his hood. He had dark brown hair, a mustache and a goatee as well as chocolate eyes. Peter stared for a moment gaping. 

“You’re Tony Stark!” He exclaimed.

 

“Yes I am,” the man agreed cheerfully. 

Something connected in his brain and Peter gasped.

“You did it on purpose. I thought it was strange that you didn’t know your energy wave would affect Steve’s phone. You purposely messed with it so you could follow him here.”

Mr. Stark raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“Very good kid.”

Peter flushed in mortification and dropped his head to the table with a loud thud.

“Oh God; I just lectured Tony Stark on how to fix his phone,” he mumbled.

He could have died of embarrassment that very moment and Mr. Stark chuckled. 

“If it makes you feel better you did a great job,” he said. “Now, how about that job?”

Peter raised his head to look at him. 

“You’re serious?” he said hesitantly. 

“Course I am. You’re brilliant and I like having brilliant people working for me.”

The younger man blushed at the praise.

“I can’t work normal hours,” he said weakly. 

“That’s fine,” Tony Stark waved off the concern. “I’ll give you a research position. You get your own projects and work table. You come in when you can and get paid for while you’re there. What do you say?”

Peter continued to stare at him.

“Uh…”

“Excellent,” Mr. Stark said smugly. 

He stood and Peter jumped to his feet to join him. He distractedly noticed how attractive the other man was as he shook his hand.  
“I’ll send someone down with the paperwork. Adieu.”

Peter watched Tony Stark walk away in a daze. He felt like he had just been run over. It had happened so quickly. The young man sunk back into his chair with a groan. He couldn’t work for Tony Stark, it would be a disaster. He was trying to avoid the Avengers, unsuccessfully, and he couldn’t risk being near Iron Man. The hero was a genius and Peter just couldn’t risk it. No to mention he had no ID in this world; he didn’t have a passport, driver’s license or a social security number.

Peter started packing up his stuff, trying to stay calm. He would just leave before the paperwork arrived. Surely Tony Stark wouldn’t remember someone like Peter anyways. The billionaire would lose interest fast and then Peter would be safe.


	4. Chapter 4

Peter was trying very hard not to panic; running had seemed like a fantastic idea at the time but he wasn’t so sure it was now; after all he was dealing with THE Tony Stark.

‘What do I know about him?’ Peter asked himself.

The answer was not much. There was lots of information in the media but, due to his experience with the Daily Bugle, he was taking it with a grain of salt. The only knowledge he could rely on was what he had gleaned from their meeting.

Mr. Stark had taken control easily and hadn’t given Peter a chance to say no; either that or he just wasn’t used to people saying no. He was clever, if not manipulative. That worried Peter; he liked to think that he could handle a genius, some of his villains were after all, but a clever genius was a whole other problem. Still it looked like, from what he had seen of the man, he was impatient and got bored easily. Peter would just wait him out; the man was part of the Avengers and must have a lot of projects on the go. He wouldn’t want to spend too much of his time on Peter. For now he would just avoid the market and all cameras; Tony Stark had built the Iron Man suit so he could probably hack into them and Peter wanted to avoid that if possible.

Peter spent that week helping out the different families in downtown New York. They all offered to feed him which he gratefully accepted. He was currently very low on cash and what he did have was spent towards furthering his trip home or food if he needed it. He didn’t worry about wasting money on accommodations as there were plenty of abandoned buildings located throughout the city curtesy of the alien invasion.

By the time the market came around a tall blond soldier was on his mind.

‘You are not risking yourself for an attractive man,’ he scolded himself. ‘No matter how handsome he is.’

He didn’t go to the market but he did end up at Angie’s house. When he offered to help out again the older woman beamed and hustled him off to where they were rebuilding a wall. Steve gnawed on Peter’s head for the whole morning and when they stopped for lunch he finally conceded defeat and approached Angie.

“Could you do a favor for me?’ he asked nervously. She offered him a sandwich and a smile.

“Of course dear, what is it?”

“Well, just, if Steve shows up…could you tell him I’m busy with stuff and won’t be around much.”

He looked away awkwardly and when he glanced back it was to see a knowing look on her face.

“I’ll let him know,” she said with a wink.

“Thanks,” He said before fleeing the area. Peter realized, as time went on, that he was starting to understand how the underbelly of New York felt. He was sleeping in ruined buildings and sneaking into pools to use their showers; it was kind of humiliating but also very enlightening. He was still helping people by night, as Spider-man, and during the day as Peter Parker. Not that anyone really knew his last name; he usually just introduced himself as Peter.

One day he stopped by Angie’s again and discovered, to his pleasure, that Steve had left him a note.

_“Hey Peter, how are you? You have caught Tony’s interest, lucky you, and he has been trying to get information from me. However, as I am not impressed with him for manipulating me to find you, I have told him nothing. It has the added benefit of driving him crazy. I hope you are doing well.”_

On one hand Peter was happy to get a note from Steve, he felt a bit like a teenage girl, and to find out that the hero hadn’t told Tony Stark anything. On the other hand he was a little worried that Mr. Stark hadn’t given up yet. Peter had no idea what to say as a reply and the result sounded a little awkward to him.

 _“Hey Steve, thanks for keeping the silence for me, I doubt I would be able to say no to Mr. Stark in person so I think it it’s best for me to lay low until he gives up. I’m doing pretty well, how about you?_ ”

When he returned a couple days later it was to find another note from the soldier and he grinned as he opened it. He was really starting to feel like a girl in school; sending letters back and forth without the teacher knowing.

_“You don’t know Tony the way I do; you might want to avoid the market for a while. Once something grabs his attention he won’t give up until he either has it or understands it; you wouldn’t believe the amount of work he went through to convince Bruce to stay at the tower. I don’t know how you are avoiding the cameras but I am very impressed. Tony is going crazy; no one has eluded him for as long as you have. Thank you for providing me and the others with a great deal of entertainment. I hope you are doing well and keeping busy.”_

Peter felt his enjoyment, at seeing Steve’s letter, die a little as he read it. So Mr. Stark hadn’t lost interest yet; that was worrisome. According to Steve it sounded like he wouldn’t anytime soon either. That left Peter with a choice to make. He could either face the music or keep hiding; he decided to keep hiding. On one hand the billionaire wouldn’t stop, according to Steve, but on the other hand he wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with the Avengers either. With his mind made up he left another note for Steve with a smile before heading on his way.

 _“I have not been trying to drive Mr. Stark crazy. I just have no intention of working for him; I am happy that my actions are amusing you though. I have been keeping very busy with all the rebuilding that is going on. Many of the people I help tell me about you; there are many stories about the good you have done for the people.”_ Peter hesitated for a moment before writing his final line. _“I hope you are keeping safe.”_ It was a couple days later that his spider sense went off with the warning signal that meant someone was watching him; it was a quiet hum which let him know that he was currently in no danger. He kept eating his hotdog as if nothing had happened while he thought about it. Being Spider-man he was used to people watching him but it didn’t make sense here. No one knew about the vigilante, he had been very careful to keep his actions quiet, and Peter Parker wasn’t exactly a person to watch.

‘Could Stark have hired someone to watch me?’ He wondered. ‘It was extremely lucky that they found me now and not when I was jumping rooftops.’

Peter had always had great luck, or terrible luck; it changed depending on the day. This wouldn’t really change anything though; Peter would just have to walk to places instead of running on the roofs. It would make avoiding Mr. Stark’s cameras harder and it would take a lot longer to reach places but that was fine, it was better than exposing his secret. So he continued to help out families that needed it and the day went smoothly.

It was only when the sun started to go down that he discovered he had a problem. The low hum was still there which meant he was still being watched. The young man really didn’t want to spend any of his hard earned money, he was still managing to sell his services on the side, on a hotel. On the other hand he didn’t want his watcher to know he was homeless. In the end his cheapness won out and he headed towards his nearest hang out. The thing that annoyed him most about this situation was that he wouldn’t be able to go out as Spider-man that night and, because of that, it took him a long time to fall asleep.

To his annoyance his spider sense was still going when he woke up.

‘Does this person not have a life?’ he thought irritably as he headed out.

Peter stuck to a multitude of families as the days went by with no sign of the watcher abetting. He didn’t want to show favorites as he was not sure if the stalker was malignant yet. So he was a little paranoid, being Spider-man, he had the right. It was the next day, when Peter was walking past an ally, he saw a girl being attacked. He didn’t hesitate at all and rushed in to help her; he was aware of the person following him so he stuck to the nice and simple. Namely he ran in, shoved one of the goons out of the way, and dragged the girl out of the ally and into the safety of the street. It irked him that he had to let the goons run off but he had managed to get a look at them and would give the description to the police.

“Are you alright?” he asked the girl worriedly.

The girl didn’t seem to have any wounds, which was good, but she was trying to hold back tears. Her hair was a mess and it looked like they had been trying to remove her clothes.

“Thank you so much,” she sobbed.

Peter shifted a little in embarrassment. He wasn’t used to getting praised as Peter Parker; hell he wasn’t used to being praised as Spider-man either.

‘This is a lot easier when I am wearing the mask,’ he realized.

“No problem,” he said awkwardly. “How about I help you to the police station?”

The girl continued to gush her thanks as Peter walked with her. The attention was unnerving, he wasn’t used to it, though he did have to admit it felt pretty good to be praised for helping someone especially since he hadn’t been able to go out as Spider-man lately. He dropped the girl off at the police station, gave his description of the men, and continued on his way.

He was considering stopping by Angie’s to see if Steve had left another note when he stopped in his tracks. Turning, he leant his back against a wall, his mind whirling. This might not be about him; the world didn’t revolve around the young vigilante after all and it certainly didn’t here where no one knew about him. This could be about Steve instead; the man was Captain America and he probably had loads of enemies, certainly more than Peter did.

'What if someone saw us together?' He considered the thought and found it plausible.

The watcher could be following him in the hopes that he would lead them to Steve. The young man felt almost relieved at the thought that it wasn’t about him for once. He was a little worried about Steve but he reminded himself that the hero could take care of himself. With this new knowledge in mind he continued walking. He went to someone else’s house instead of Angie’s; if this was about Steve he didn’t want them to find out about the notes. Even if he could handle himself, Peter wanted to help the other man if he could.

The next morning when he woke up it was to his spider sense being stronger. It was still a quiet buzz, which let him know that he was in no immediate danger, but it had increased in intensity a bit which meant that he had more than one watcher now.

‘Why me?’ he pondered sourly as he started his day.

His spider sense shifted multiple times that day; it seemed like his watchers were taking turns. Sometimes there was one person and sometimes there were two.

‘I hate my life,’ he thought grumpily.

To make matters worse he was starting to smell pretty bad and had to stop by the swimming pool for a shower. This wouldn’t have been too much of a problem since he could have just gone in as if he was going swimming. This was a bad luck day though as there was a sign up saying ‘Closed for maintenance.’ He scowled at the door for several minutes before sighing.

‘What the hell, they already know I’m homeless anyways.’

Having decided he picked the lock, entered the building, and took a long hot shower which left him in a much better mood. He even spent some money to get his clothes cleaned at a laundromat. Two more days passed without incident but his bad luck caught up to him again as he was walking towards the library; when he wasn’t helping people with the rebuilding he often went there to do research. In a dark corner off to the side of the building he noticed another woman being cornered against the wall. Immediately he rushed in to help her; she was surrounded by several men and was cowering against the wall with her arms held in front of her face. The young man lunged in to get her out of the way and to his surprise got one of his arms grabbed by a goon. His instincts took over and he flipped the guy over his shoulder.

‘Old habits die hard apparently.’

At least he had managed to mitigate his strength so the guy was only slightly hurt. He shoved some of the goons away; they were persistent so he had to punch a couple, and dragged the woman away. When he turned to look at her, he blinked and felt his throat go dry. She was beautiful with blue eyes and red hair. She also looked kind of familiar and he tried to place it as she moved closer.

“My hero,” she murmured making him flush.

Peter barely had time to register the jump of his spider sense before he felt something pierce his skin. Looking down, he blinked, and saw some sort of dart stuck in his arm. He jerked his head back up to stare at the women; there was still a smile on her face but it was more calculating now. Peter managed stumble back a foot before his knees gave out on him. He felt someone else land on the ground near his head and he groaned, trying to stand.

‘Must have jumped from the roof,’ his brain supplied foggily before he proceeded to black out.


	5. Chapter 5

When Peter regained consciousness it was with a ginormous headache. He opened his eyes and, upon receiving bright light into them, shut them with a pained hiss. 

“He’s awake,” someone said in a calm quiet voice. 

“Already?” someone else replied surprised.

“JARVIS dim lights to 30 percent.”

Hmm, that last voice sounded familiar but Peter was having a hard time placing it with the jackhammer pounding in his skull; it felt like Juggernaught had slammed his head into a wall. Was this what a hangover felt like? He decided that he was never going to get drunk. Ever. 

“Yes sir,” a robotically British voice said. 

The young man sighed in relief when the lights dimmed and cracked his eyes open. When he could see without feeling blinded he opened them fully. By this point his mind was beginning to restart and he could remember the past events. He hadn’t known drugs worked on him; he had never had the chance to experiment with them back home. He had meant to since it was always a good plan to know your weaknesses but had never gotten the opportunity.

‘I wonder if it’s all drugs or just the ones in this universe,’ he thought. ‘I should look into that when I have the time.’

Taking stock of his surroundings he found that he was sitting in a chair, not tied down, and nothing hurt except for his head that was. Had he mentioned the migraine? His spider sense was completely silent so he knew he was safe for the moment. Someone coughed loudly for attention and it caused Peter’s eyes to actually focus. He almost fell out of his chair when he saw who it was in front of him.

“Mr. Stark,” he squeaked and whoa, that was embarrassing. 

Tony Stark just grinned and bowed with a flourish.

“That’s me,” he agreed before leaning in.

The older man’s face was right in front of Peter’s and he leaned back a tiny bit. Up close he could see that the man was even more attractive than he had originally thought. His goatee was neatly trimmed, his hair looked really soft and he had nice eyes. Peter averted his eyes over the man’s shoulder in embarrassment.

‘What is it about these men that make me feel like a teenager again?’ 

“Now why don’t you tell me how you were avoiding my detection? I mean I would have found you eventually of course but-”

Before Mr. Stark could continue he was cut off by a snort. It came from somewhere behind Peter and the boy took advantage of the moment to shift a little more away from the billionaire so he could look over his shoulder. Standing near the back of the room, which was quite large and had what looked like a bar in it, were two people. A man, who was looking incredibly amused, and a woman who looked very familiar. He studied her for a moment, noticing her short beautiful red hair and the lack of height which made her look petite; there was something sexual about her that made his throat dry and he couldn’t see her eyes but for some reason he imagined they were blue and then it clicked. 

“You’re the woman from before.”

She tilted her head slightly to study him, making him feel like an insect under glass and nodded. 

“Thank you for saving me,” she said in a sweet mocking tone and Peter quickly turned his head towards the man instead as a way of avoiding the humiliation he felt. 

He found he was rather grateful for the distance between them as even from where he was sitting he could see that this man was very handsome as well. He was wearing a black muscle shirt which was completely unfair considering how attractive his arms were. Peter flicked his eyes from the man to the woman and then to Mr. Stark. 

“Are all of you this freaking gorgeous?” he blurted out. 

The room went dead silent as they all stared at him and Peter felt his face turn bright red. He buried it in his hands as he heard Mr. Stark and the strange man, who was most likely his stalker, start to laugh.

“Yes, yes we are,” Mr. Stark replied obviously enjoying Peter’s embarrassment. “I’m the prettiest though.”

“Of course you are Tony,” a new voice said dryly and a glass of water was pressed to Peter’s fingers. “Here, this should help your headache.”

Peter accepted it gratefully and took a drink as he lifted his head. He then proceeded to choke on it when he saw the man in front of him. Ruffled black hair, also soft looking, and warm brown eyes; the man was looking at him with worry and then at Mr. Stark with annoyance when the genius proceeded to pound on Peter’s back as the young man gasped for air. 

“You know perfectly well that doesn’t help Tony,” he scolded. “Can you talk?” he asked Peter calmly. “Do you need help?”

“I’m fine,” Peter managed to gasp out.

Once the coughing fit had subsided he stared at the man. 

“You’re Doctor Bruce Banner,” he said stunned.

Dr. Banner looked a little surprised at Peter’s reaction and nodded.

“Yes,” he said slowly and Peter broke out into an excited grin.

“You’re absolutely brilliant,” he said eagerly. “I’ve read all of your papers, or at least all the ones I could find and they were amazing. I found your observations of the effect of radiation on chromosomes fascinating.”

He couldn’t keep the delight out of his voice as he talked. 

“I thought you dealt with technology like Tony,” Mr. Banner said confused and Peter shook his head. 

“I just do that in my spare time for money,” he explained. “Though I did learn a lot from studying any lectures Mr. Stark has made. My real passion is bio-chemistry Dr. Banner.”

“Hold on a minute,” Mr. Stark interjected. “You’re telling me you just work with electronics for money,” there was an incredulous tone in his voice.

Peter blinked and shifted awkwardly in his chair. He had forgotten the other people present in his excitement. 

“I do like working with technology, it’s very diverse and there is a lot to learn,” he admitted. “But at this point in time it is more a necessity than anything else.”

He could hear Mr. Stark inhale but Dr. Banner spoke first.

“I apologize for Tony; he has been very rude. You already know the two of us. Let me introduce you to Clint and Natasha.”

Peter aimed an uncomfortable smile at them and nodded. 

“Hello,” he greeted. 

He wasn’t sure how he felt being in such close quarters with his stalker and the woman that had drugged him. 

“And JARVIS,” Tony added. “He’s my AI,” he informed Peter proudly. 

The young man let out an impressed whistle and tilted his head back to look at the ceiling.

“Nice to meet you.”

“It is a pleasure Peter,” the robotic voice from before answered.

“He’s awake Steve,” he heard Natasha say.

He turned to face her, he really wished he knew her last name as it felt wrong calling her by her first when he didn’t know her, and found her standing at a doorway. He hadn’t even heard her move; she was definitely a woman to watch out for. He must have looked confused because Mr. Stark decided to elaborate.

“Steve was driving us crazy with his pacing so he was exiled from the living room.”

Peter blinked and looked around the large room. He had been so distracted by the others that he hadn’t even noticed Steve was absent. The muscled man suddenly appeared in the room and moved in front of Peter; he looked a mix of angry and worried which made Peter apprehensive. 

“Why didn’t you tell me Peter?” he demanded.

Peter leaned back a little bit, the blonde was a little too close for comfort; he was close enough for Peter to see just how blue the man’s eyes were. 

‘What was it with these people and personal space?’

He quickly distracted himself by thinking about Steve’s question.

‘Tell him what? What was this about?’

The whole situation was making him more nervous as it went on. The young man decided it would be best just to bite the bullet; there was no point in postulating without any information.

“Tell you what?” he asked cautiously.

“That you’re homeless,” Steve answered sharply and Peter blinked.

‘That’s what this was about?’

“Umm, I didn’t think it was important,” he answered truthfully.

He could see Mr. Stark shaking his head out of the corner of his eye but then Steve started talking again.

“Not important? Or course it’s important, you’re living on the street.”

The young man sensed a lecture coming on and he quickly attempted to avert it.

“Lots of people are homeless,” he informed Steve.

He could hear Tony snort in the background but ignored him. He was a little peeved at the billionaire. He was reasonably sure that he was the one who had informed Steve of Peter’s housing problem which he did not appreciate. 

“What about Aunt May?” Steve demanded. “There is no way she can be okay with this.”

Peter swallowed and felt that fear and sadness that he worked so hard to ignore rise up again. He had absolutely no idea what was going on back home; he didn’t know what Doc Ock was up to in his absence and Aunt May could be in danger. He needed to be focused on going back home; he didn’t have the time to sit here being grilled by people that didn’t understand his situation. Peter took a couple deep breathes to gain control and then shoved the emotions back down.

“She’s not here,” he answered. “She doesn’t know.”  
Despite his best efforts he couldn’t quite keep out all the emotion in his voice and he avoiding looking at Steve, instead staring over his shoulder. The taller man shifted so Peter had to look at him and the young man swallowed. There was an understanding look on his face, sadness in his eyes, and Peter looked away again. He didn’t like how Steve seemed to see right through him. 

“You can’t help everyone Steve.”

He was fully aware of the irony of his statement. After all how often had Gwen told him the same thing. He quickly shoved the pain that thinking of her thought away so he could concentrate on the situation.

“Shouldn’t have said that,” someone, he thought it was Clint, said.

As he watched a determined look appeared on Steve’s face and Peter braced himself. He could sense something coming that he probably wouldn’t like. 

“Maybe not, but I can help you.”

Peter frowned, that determination had spread to his voice making Peter uneasy.

“Move into the tower Peter.”

Peter gaped at him in shock; he hadn’t expected this.

“Wha-”

“You can’t do that Steve,” Mr. Stark interrupted. “Only I can invite people into the tower.”

Peter felt a burst of relief which faded as the man swiveled to face him with a grin. 

“Move into the tower Peter.”

The young man continued to stare at them dumbly and the genius smirked.

“And while you’re here you can work for me,” he said cheerfully. 

Peter looked around the room helplessly but no one offered him support. He thought he could see something like disapproval in Natasha’s eyes but she stayed silent. His stalker seemed to be enjoying the whole spectacle and Dr. Banner just shrugged at him. His behavior told Peter that it would be useless to argue with them but the young man could be pretty stubborn himself when the situation called for it. 

“I can’t live here,” he said firmly. “I don’t know any of you.”

“Pfht, we’re the Avengers, you can trust us,” Tony waved the objection off.

“I still don’t know you Mr. Stark and I don’t want to live with people I am not comfortable with.”

“Is that why you address us by our last names?” Dr. Banner asked.

Peter glanced at him in confusion. 

“Isn’t it respectful to address your betters by their last names?”

“But you call Steve by his first name,” Mr. Stark objected.

“I’ve known him for longer and am more comfortable with him,” Peter replied.

He glanced between them, noticing the pleased look on Steve’s face before trying a different tactic. 

“Wouldn’t living here put me in danger; people might think they can use me against you,” he pointed out.

He could see that Steve looked a little unsure at this but Mr. Stark wasn’t fazed. 

“I could assign you a bodyguard if you’re worried about it,” he scoffed. “But people wouldn’t dare mess with someone living in my tower.”

Peter stared at the genius before rubbing his forehead in frustration.

“I wish I had popcorn,” he heard his stalker say and he aimed a scowl at the man. 

While he was fairly sure Mr. Stark had been the one to alert Steve he knew that the other had definitely played a part in his situation. 

“You can have your own equipment,” Mr. Stark offered. “Hell, you can have your own floor.”

“You really want him huh?” 

Peter could hear the grin in his stalker’s voice and saw the answering one on Tony Stark’s face. 

“You bet I do,” he winked at Peter. “And I always get what I want,” he added in lecherously making Peter flush.

Sure he had flirted with people before but the only person he had ever actually been with was Gwen. He had never had a guy so blatantly hit on him before. Well mess with him was more like it since he doubted Mr. Stark was actually interested. He forced his mind away from those kind of thoughts and thought about the offer. The floor was tempting; it would make his research go a lot faster. However it would make being Spider-man a hundred times more difficult and besides he honestly was uncomfortable living with people he didn’t know. The abandoned buildings were working perfectly fine and he saw no reason to change that. 

“Please Peter.”

The young man made the mistake of looking at Steve and froze. There were the puppy eyes again; those should be illegal especially on a man like Steve. It was hugely unfair and he quickly averted his eyes. An idea occurred to him; he couldn’t agree to their terms but he could meet them halfway. 

“I’m not going to live with you,” he said firmly. “But,” he added quickly before the others could argue. “I’ll visit to show you I’m okay.”

He leaned back and waited calmly as Steve thought it over. He still had a determined expression and Peter sighed. 

“You can’t force me to stay here Steve.”

“Actually we totally could,” Mr. Stark interjected. 

Peter turned his gaze on the older man warily. 

‘Would they?’  
He had been kidnapped after all so it wasn’t completely unbelievable. He was capable of escaping of course but that would make him look suspicious and would cause more trouble than he wanted. 

“Tony,” Steve said exasperated.

Tony Stark dissolved into laughter as Peter watched and he frowned. 

“His face,” he crowed. “He honestly believed me.”

“You did have me kidnapped,” Peter pointed out.

Mr. Stark caught his breath from all the laughing and patted his shoulder. 

“Don’t worry, I just got lucky and happened to have a bored Clint Barton on hand,” he said. “A bored Clint will do anything,” he added in a faux whisper. 

“I will not,” Mr. Barton said indigently. 

The other heroes exchanged smiles.

“Yes you will,” they all chorused. 

Peter couldn’t help but laugh; sure he was currently dealing with the exact people he had wanted to avoid but they were fun and he couldn’t help being drawn in. Once the laughter died down he looked up to see Steve studying him. 

“And meals.”

Peter looked confused and Steve clarified.

“You come by for meals so I know you’re getting proper food.” 

“You want me to eat dinner with you?” Peter said incredulously. 

Steve nodded firmly and Tony grinned. 

“Careful, this is how his wooing starts. Once he buys you flowers there is no escape.”

“Tony!” Steve snapped while, to Peter’s amazement, blushing.

The billionaire just cackled and offered Peter a hand. When taken he tugged him off the chair and onto his feet. Peter glanced around the room at all the heroes standing in it. 

“I can’t believe this is happening to me,” he mused aloud. 

“Why?” Steve asked confused and Peter stared at him.

“You have to ask,” he said. “You guys are amazing; you’re Steve Rogers, Captain America, and the pretty much perfect man. 

He turned to Mr. Stark and continued. 

“You’re Tony Stark. You built the Iron Man suit AND created an AI. Dr. Banner is incredible and definitely a genius. I have so many topics I would love to discuss with you. And you two.”

He pointed at Mr. Barton and Natasha and then paused.

“I don’t actually know anything about you but you-”

He pointed at Clint.

“- are clearly a badass and she scares me.”

He looked around at all of them; they were looking a little surprised by his outburst and he swallowed. 

“I’m just a regular guy.”

‘Well sort of,’ he admitted in his head. ‘One that just happens to have the powers of a spider.’

“I’m not in your league.”

That he definitely believed. 

“And I’m standing in the room with you being invited to come into the tower for meals after being drugged and kidnapped.” 

He took a moment to catch his breath and Mr. Stark raised an eyebrow.

“You done?”

Peter nodded his head sheepishly. He hadn’t meant to rant like that and felt a little silly now that he was done. He firmly believed everything he said though, well aside from being a normal person of course. 

“Good, now try not to worry about it. We’re all people too and won’t bite.” 

He leered at Peter making him shift awkwardly again.

“Unless you want us to.”

Steve scowled at the billionaire and tugged Peter a couple steps ahead as they started out of the room.

“You never replied to my last letter,” he commented casually.

“You were exchanging letters?” Mr. Stark gasped. “What are you? Twelve year old girls?”

Peter ducked his head in embarrassment while Steve turned to admonish the older man. Despite the stern words it was obvious that there was no real heat to their argument. 

“You get used to him.”

Peter turned at the quiet murmur on his other side and swallowed.

“Dr. Banner,” he greeted the other man respectfully and a little nervously. 

Since he had first arrived on this world and started his research he had found the two men, Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner, fascinating. Their work was incredible and he felt a great deal of respect for the both of them. 

“He may seem like a jerk but he means well,” the man continued. 

Peter followed the shorter man’s gaze to where Mr. Stark and Steve were talking. The genius had clearly said something funny and both he and Steve were laughing. They looked so carefree and happy that Peter had to look away.

‘Stop it,’ he told himself.

He couldn’t get used to this. Someday he would return to his world and it was better to leave this one without any attachments. From the corner of his eye he saw Mr. Stark pull out his phone and he suddenly frowned. 

“Excuse me Mr. Stark. What time is it?”

“It is currently 8 PM sir.”

“He wasn’t asking you JARVIS,” Mr. Stark said with a frown.

“I know sir but I am unused to someone being so polite that I felt obligated to answer him.”

Peter looked up at the ceiling and then stared at Mr. Stark.

“Did he just diss you?” he asked in amusement.

“JARVIS has a mind of his own,” Mr. Stark growled. “Something I keep meaning to fix.”

Peter smiled in amusement and then blanched.

“Crap, it’s already eight. I have to get going.”

He started walking down the hallway before pausing. After a moment he headed back sheepishly.

“Can you show me the way out?”

Mr. Stark snickered in amusement but Steve smiled.

“I’ll show you,” he offered and led the way.

“He’ll show you alright. The question is how much,” Mr. Stark quipped as they walked away. 

“Just ignore him,” Steve advised. “He likes to try to a get a rise out of you but if you ignore him long enough he’ll sometimes get bored and wander off.”

Peter nodded along and then there was silence till they reached the doors.

“About the dinners-” he started.

“You can’t get out of them,” Steve interjected and Peter huffed. 

“Fine.”

He smiled up at the taller man; there was something about Steve that drew him in. It was hard not to be happy around him.

“I have plans tomorrow but I can come over Saturday after the farmer’s market.”

Steve nodded his head.

“I’ll hold you to that,” he said with a grin. “Don’t make me kidnap you again,” he teased.

“Ha, you wish,” Peter laughed before walking away. 

XXXXXX

It was the day of the market and Peter was feeling a mix of nervous and excited. On the one hand he was eager to get a look around the tower and see Steve again.

‘And Dr. Banner,’ he mentally added in.

He was hoping he could talk to the man about some of his papers. He would like to talk to Mr. Stark as well but he found the billionaire a little overwhelming. On the other hand he was about to eat dinner with Steve Rogers, the others might be there too, and that was a nerve wracking thought.

He was halfway to the market when he heard screaming and he immediately took off to find the source of the noise; when he found it he stopped and stared. There were tiny little robots, about the size of cats, running around the street and there had to be hundreds of them. Most of the Avengers were there fighting them; Iron Man was flying around blasting them while Captain America was on the ground breaking them with his bare hands and shield. Black Widow was there was well using some wickedly sharp knives and he could see Hawkeye on a roof shooting; it was clear the archer was running out of arrows and Peter could see them all over the place sticking out of motionless robots. The hulk wasn’t there but that was probably because he would cause more damage than help in this case. The whole scene would have been highly comical if it weren’t for the fact that the mini robots were actually causing some damage. He could see that Captain America and Black widow had bite and scratch marks on their bodies. 

He stood there for a moment conflicted. On the one hand he had told himself to avoid attention and what he was considering was the opposite of that. But he had been so bored lately and just as a bored Clint Barton would do anything a bored Spider-man was dangerous too. He wasn’t used to secrecy; back home he could web swing through the city in the daylight and it didn’t matter who saw him. He was tired of all the hiding in the dark; granted he was an awesome ninja but he was tired of it and wanted to have some actual fun. 

Mind made up he retreated a little bit and changed into his Spider-man costume; he kept the clothes on him at all times for moments like this. Once ready he crawled up to the roof and jumped. He couldn’t resist an exuberant laugh as he fell through the air and landed on some of the robots with a loud crunch. He ignored the other hero’s surprise, threw   
his arms up in the air and practically crowed with delight. 

“Oh god yes, they crunch,” he cheered. 

He started moving quickly so he was basically dancing across the robots; feeling and hearing them break beneath his feet. 

“This is exactly what I needed,” he said happily. 

Glancing around he could see the heroes eyeing him but they were too busy with the mini bots to pay too much attention to him. While looking around he noticed the arrows sticking out everywhere and decided he might as well help out as much as possible. He started cheerfully moving about, destroying robots as he went, collecting arrows. When he had gathered a good armful he headed towards the wall.

He took a quick glance to calculate his trajectory and then launched himself off the wall. He turned slightly in midair and spread his feet. He took care to balance his weight so that when he landed on the red and gold surface he wouldn’t hurt it. He bent his knees slightly, applied pressure, and then launched himself again high into the sky. He heard Iron Man let out a shout of surprise as he used the hero as a diving board but he was having too much fun to care. 

“Hey Hawk!” he yelled.

When the archer looked up sharply the web slinger tossed the arrows he had collected at him. In his surprise the hero didn’t shoot the vigilante, which Spiderman appreciated, and caught the arrows instead. Spider-man twisted in midair, held his arms out for balance, and landed on some of the bots. He proceeded to throw his arms up with a cheer.

“And he sticks the landing! The crowd goes wild!”

He killed some more of the robots before glancing around at the remaining number. It had gone down quite a bit and he figured this would be a good time to vamoose. This way he could get away while the Avengers were still occupied; and so wouldn’t be stopping him with questions that he would rather avoid. He climbed a wall, offered a cheery salute to Captain America who was looking, and disappeared down the other side.


	6. Chapter 6

That had been a terrible idea and Peter couldn’t believe he made such a monumental mistake. He had spent so long trying to avoid detection, and managing fairly well at it too which was amazing considering the colors of his suit, and then he had blown it all up big time. 

‘At least there weren’t any literal explosions to go with the figurative one,’ he thought with a frown. ‘Knowing my luck that could have happened easily.’

He glanced at the doors to the Avenger’s tower and chewed on his lip. After a moment of worrying he took a couple steps in and then looked up at the ceiling.

“Good evening JARVIS.”

“Good evening Mr. Parker,” the AI replied. “Are you here for dinner? Shall I inform Tony of your arrival?”

“No that’s alright,” Peter responded quickly. “I heard they had a battle today and I don’t want to intrude so, uh, just tell them I stopped by.”

He was almost out the door when JARVIS responded.

“Master Rodgers has informed me that ‘if you don’t get your butt up here I will come down and get you.’” The AI dutifully repeated.

Peter released a sigh; so much for that then. He nodded and proceeded into the elevator that was waiting for him. 

“How was your day JARVIS?” he asked politely. 

There was quiet for a moment as some rock music started playing.

‘Interesting elevator music,’ he thought.

“It was normal Mr. Parker; I do not have the capacity to declare whether it was good or bad.”

The younger man tried not to wince; he had forgotten that the AI was just that, an artificial intelligence. The elevator door opened to the sound of shouting.

“I can’t believe this!”

Peter blinked and then cautiously moved forward. He entered a large room, the one he had been in before he realized, and Mr. Stark was standing in the middle of it. The other heroes were there as well and the billionaire was waving his arms widely. Upon catching sight of Peter he caught his arm and then dragged him further into the room.

“Can you believe this?” he demanded.

“Believe what?” Peter asked hesitantly. 

“This!”

Mr. Stark pointed his finger at a holographic screen and Peter made a mental note to squeal over it later; right now all he could do was stare at the frozen image of Spider-man caught in mid-air. 

“I mean here we are, The Avengers, saving the city again, and all the media focus on is this guy,” he fumed.

Underneath the paused image of himself lay a captain to the story and Peter found himself snorting.

“The Human Spider?” he asked amused.

It would be a very depressing world if he couldn’t laugh at himself and he was perfectly aware of the irony. Mr. Stark threw his hands up in the air in a dramatic gesture. 

“I know right,” he exclaimed. “Stupidest name ever; fits the jerk,” he grumbled.

“Ignore him,” Mr. Barton said with a smirk.

“He’s just angry that he got used as a spring board,” Steve added in.

It was clear that the hero found the moment amusing as well and glancing around Peter saw everyone smiling in amusement, even the spy though with her it was more a small quirk of the lips. 

“JARVIS rewind,” Mr. Barton ordered.

“Don’t you dare,” Mr. Stark said but it was too late and the clip went back a couple seconds.

Peter got to watch himself as he jumped and caused Iron Man to flounder in mid-air. It was almost as amusing to see it in person as the memory was. Mr. Barton started laughing and everyone else was either chucking or smiling in amusement. Mr. Stark pouted and Steve slapped him on the shoulder in consolation before turning to Peter with a smile. 

“Come on, dinner’s ready.”

He led him into a kitchen/dining room and Peter didn’t understand why Mr. Stark was so rich yet he had a small dining table practically in the kitchen.

‘Probably has a larger fancier one somewhere else,’ he thought.

Upon actually taking in the dinner table he gawped.

“You cooked?” he asked and Steve eyed him strangely.

“That’s what most people do for meals,” he responded and Peter felt embarrassed.

It made sense but for some reason he hadn’t expected it. A home cooked meal with the Avengers just seemed too bizarre, even for Peter’s life which was usually pretty weird. The meal went by fairly smoothly; there was a lot of teasing aimed at Mr. Stark and the food tasted great. Peter kept silent for most of it; he didn’t really feel as though he belonged with the group and he almost faded into the background though he was sure the spy, at least, was fully aware of him. He had always been pretty good at staying quiet; it helped him to avoid bullies when he was younger. The fact that the red head was keeping an eye on him made him nervous though. Everyone turned to look at him when he started to clear the table. 

“What are you doing Peter?” Steve protested as the young man started to fill the sink.

This time it was Peter that gave the other an odd look. 

“Doing dishes,” he responded simply.

“You don’t have too.” 

“Yeah,” Mr. Stark butted in. “In case you haven’t noticed; I’m kinda rich so my guests don’t have to do chores.”

Peter scowled at them and stubbornly put his hands into the hot soapy water. 

“Aunt May raised me to help; you cooked so I’m cleaning.”

“You don’t know where anything goes,” Mr. Stark pointed out.

Peter stared at the man for a moment as he realized that was true. He finished cleaning a pot and then smiled sweetly at the billionaire.

“Would you be so kind as to tell me where this goes Mr. Stark?”

The other man spluttered but, to the amusement of the others standing in the kitchen, pointed to the cupboard. When Peter finished washing a frying pan he asked again. To the other heroes surprise Tony continued to give the younger man instructions on where to place everything he washed. It got to the point where he just pointed without Peter having to ask. When he had finished and dried his hands Peter turned to him with a genuine smile.

“Thank you for the help Mr. Stark.”

Everyone in the room was staring at him, he noticed uneasily, and he shifted his weight. 

“Well, I better get going,” he said, eager to get away from the awkward moment.

“Hold on a sec,” Mr. Stark said and grabbed his phone off the table. “I thought you might want to look at this to help you with your ‘spare time’ tinkering.”

There was a definite note of disapproval in his voice but Peter ignored it; he was already reaching for the phone excitedly but paused before taking it.

“What’s the catch?” he asked suspiciously and the billionaire grinned. 

“Aww look, he’s learning,” he cooed. “The catch is you have to start calling me Tony; Mr. Stark was my father.”

Peter was about to protest but there was something in the other man’s eyes that stopped him. Something unpleasant lurked there that made him swallow his original words and caused him to nod instead.

“Excellent,” Mr…Tony beamed and dropped the phone into Peter’s hands.

The younger man quickly sat at the table and pulled his tools out of his backpack.

“Can I open it?” he asked eagerly; knowing he sounded like a kid at Christmas and not caring.

Tony waved a hand in a go-ahead motion and Peter dove in. He had to figure out how to open it first; which took a while in itself as the phone was completely different from any he had seen before. Once he got the back off he gasped in delight.

“A fingerprint scanner and an eye scanner,” he murmured excitedly. 

“You have security on the inside of your phone?” Steve asked incredulously and Tony shrugged.

Peter didn’t even notice the conversation above his head; he was too engrossed in the complicated defense mechanisms to pay attention. He frowned as he paid more attention to the fingerprint scanner; something seemed off about it and he tapped it with one of his tools. His spider sense erupted and he found himself launched across the room curtesy of a strong electric pulse. He leaned against the wall, unable to move and in pain, as his limbs convulsed. He could feel all of his hair standing on end.

“Peter!” Steve exclaimed and moved to his side.

“Ah, I forgot about that,” Tony admitted.

“How do you forget something like that?” Mr. Barton asked skeptically.

“No one’s ever tried to break into my phone before,” the man responded defensively. 

He looked a little guilty but Peter’s gaze was suddenly filled with Steve’s face.

“Are you alright?” he asked worriedly.

“Everything hurts,” Peter answered honestly. “And my fingers won’t stop twitching,” he added annoyed.

He was confused; this was affecting him far more than any of Electro’s attacks had and that worried him. It meant that there was something more than electricity in that and he wanted to know what. Steve hauled him to his feet and Peter let out a yelp as his legs practically gave way causing him to lean heavily on the soldier. Peter could feel how muscular Steve was against his body and he quickly distracted himself by scowling at Tony. 

“First drugs and now an electric wave of some kind. You guys are hazardous!” he exclaimed. “What’s next? Kidnapping?”

He stopped and stared at them in horror.

“Oh god, I’m going to get kidnapped aren’t I?”

The others looked at him a little guilty and suddenly Peter had to hide his face in Steve’s shoulder to muffle his laughter.

“Peter?” Steve asked cautiously but the younger man wasn’t listening. 

It was all too funny; getting bitten by a spider, turning into a vigilante, ending up in an alternate universe, eating dinner with the Avengers and to top it all off Tony had a weapon that worked on him. If he got hit with that in battle he would be royally fucked. 

“He may be going into shock,” Dr. Banner said causing Peter to laugh harder.

Getting hit with an electric wave, shock, get it? It’s funny.

“Bring him over here,” he heard dimly through his laughter.

He felt himself lowered onto a couch, his legs were elevated a bit, and a warm hand pressed against his forehead. 

“I’m fine,” he said between giggles.

He tried to bat the hand away and then proceeded to hiss in pain.

“He feels fine,” Dr. Banner reported. “Not too cold or clammy.”

“Do you feel nauseous Peter?” Steve asked concerned.

“I’m fine,” he repeated.

He was starting to calm down from his laughing fit.

“You know when your foot falls asleep?” he asked rhetorically. “That’s what my whole body feels like except, like, ten times worse.”

‘That probably wasn’t a good way to prove I’m fine,’ he thought the moment after he said it.

“If it makes you feel better; I’m impressed you’re still conscious,” Tony offered and Peter scowled at the man.

“I hate you,” he informed him. “Incredibly awed and fascinated but still hate you.” 

He looked up when he felt another hand on his forehead and saw Steve looking down at him worried. 

“Honestly I’m fine,” he reassured the man. 

“You’re staying the night,” Steve declared.

Peter opened his mouth to argue but shut it again when the blonde glared.

“No arguments.”

The younger man pouted but nodded; in truth he wasn’t sure he would have been able to leave with how his body was currently feeling.

“Good; Tony will provide you with a room and pajamas seeing as this is all his fault.”

The billionaire opened his mouth to argue, paused, and then shrugged.

“He can have the empty one next to yours,” he offered with a casual grin and winked at Peter when Steve wasn’t looking.

Steve nodded pleased and then glanced down at Peter.

“Can you walk?” he asked and Peter scoffed.

“Of course I can.”

He got to his feet, held the position for all of ten seconds, and then his legs gave out on him again. Steve caught him before he hit the ground and Peter flushed bright red as he was lifted into the man’s arms bridal style.

“You can put me down,” he squeaked embarrassed.

“We saw what happened last time right,” Tony pointed out while trying to, badly, hide his snickers.

Mr. Barton wasn’t even trying and Peter really wished he could disappear.

“Can we have him over more often?” the archer asked.

Peter shut his eyes in humiliation, sure that the moment couldn’t get any worse.

“You should massage the limbs that are most affected,” Dr. Banner stated simply. “It should help lessen the effects.”

Peter’s eyes snapped open and he stared at the physicist in horror. The man had sounded completely serious but Peter could see the amusement in his eyes; even the doctor was against him apparently. Steve nodded at him and left the room; Peter could hear the snickers as they walked away and he shut his eyes again. He had to bite his lip as they moved. The shock had left his skin extremely sensitive and each step burned. Every time the blonde moved their bodies shifted and where they touched felt like fire. He really hoped Steve hadn’t taken Dr. Banner seriously as he didn’t want to know what a massage felt like. Eventually they entered a room and Peter sighed in relief as he was placed on a bed.

“Let’s never do that again,” he stated and Steve chuckled.

“Embarrassed?” he asked and Peter avoided looking at him.

“You could say that,” he muttered.

Out of his peripheral vision he saw the man kneel and his head jerked back towards him.

“What are you doing?” he asked alarmed.

Steve merely took his hand and Peter tried to hold back a wince.

“I’m doing as Bruce suggested.”

“Dr. Banner was joking,” Peter said quickly as he tried to pull away.

It didn’t work as the energy was still affecting his body. The spasms had mostly stopped though there was the occasional one and his skin still felt super sensitive. Peter hated feeling so weak and resolved to find out what that energy had been and how to avoid it as soon as possible. 

Steve merely started massaging his hand and Peter had to bite his lip again. It started off as painful but then slowly morphed into something different. This time he had to hold back a whine; where Steve was rubbing was starting to burn pleasurably. If he read those cheesy romance books, which he didn’t, he would guess that was the feeling often mentioned in them.

“Feeling better?” the other man asked and Peter mutely nodded.

Steve switched to the other hand and again Peter felt the painful fire then pleasurable burn.

“How’s the rest of your body?”

“Good,” Peter replied quickly and the blonde’s eyes narrowed.

“Peter.”

It was only his name but it was spoken in a commanding voice; one that ordered him to tell the truth.

‘Is that his captain voice?’ Peter wondered.

It did pleasant things to his body, turned him on, and he was even more determined to deny help as he wasn’t sure how much more touching he could handle. He made the mistake of looking into Steve’s eyes and mentally cursed.

“It’s better but still hurts,” he answered truthfully.

Steve slid his hands up Peter’s arm; rubbing warmth and feeling back into it. The younger man swallowed and switched his gaze to the ceiling; he was trying to ignore the handsome man on his knees, practically between his legs. 

‘This is a terrible idea,’ he thought while trying to mentally force his hard on away. 

Steve switched to his other arm and Peter took a deep breath; the blonde was the first person to really touch him since Gwen and he was way too sensitive to it.

He panicked a little when the blonde went to start on his legs.

“I’m feeling better now,” he announced, nudged his foot against Steve’s side as proof, and firmly ignored the painful twinge that followed the movement. 

Steve paused with his hand still resting on Peter’s leg and looked up; he had large hands Peter noticed absently as they stared at each other. There was something odd in Steve’s eyes and the gaze went straight to Peter’s dick. It caused him to wonder if the blonde was affected too. He didn’t know what answer he wanted to that question. Peter swallowed past his suddenly dry throat. He was fully aware of Steve’s hand on his leg and the warmth that was burning, pleasurably, into his skin even through his pants. 

‘For god’s sake; it’s not like he’s touching your thigh,’ he scolded himself.

It was true that the hand was below his knee but that didn’t seem to stop the heat from spreading. Peter tried to convince himself that it was only because of the electric static he was still feeling, though the strength had lessened, through his body. Steve moved his hand to run it up Peter’s arm and the vigilante sucked in a breath.

 

“Your hair is still standing on end,” he noted.

‘Does this man even realize what he’s doing to me?” Peter wondered as he leaned back a little to try and gain some space.

“Honestly I’m fine.”

He just wanted Steve to leave before the young man gave into his urge to touch him. They stared at each other for, what felt like, a long time and Peter frowned.

“Uh…Steve?”

The man before him blinked and then rose fluidly to his feet. To Peter’s amazement there was red on his cheeks and Steve coughed. 

“Yes, well, alright then. Good night.”

And then Steve was gone and Peter collapsed on the bed with a sigh. He had no idea what to think of the situation he had found himself in. Suddenly he jerked up, hissed in discomfort, and stared at the ceiling.

“Tony can watch all of that can’t he?” he asked.

“Yes sir,” was the reply.

“Any chance you can erase it?” he asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid not Mr. Parker,” JARVIS answered.

Peter fell back down and ignored the twinge of pain that resulted from the action. He didn’t like how long it was taking for the effects to fade away and his mind kept going back to Steve and Tony. 

“Awesome,” he sighed and shut his eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Confusion overwhelmed him when Peter opened his eyes. This didn’t feel like one of his usual sleeping arrangements; it was way too soft and big. He lay there for a second as his mind wandered and then bolted upright; the memories were making themselves known and he felt himself redden. He glanced around the room; he hadn’t seen much last night as he had been…distracted. The place was very spacious and had a large bed, which he was currently sitting on, as well as a couch.

‘Who needs a couch in their bedroom?’ he thought in disbelief. 

He pulled himself off the bed, stretched, and looked up at the ceiling.

“Can you tell me who else is awake JARVIS?”

“Master Stark is currently in his workshop. I have informed him of your awakening.”

The young man snatched his bag from where it lay on the ground and headed for the door. At least his body was feeling better, no residual tingling, and he was still dressed so he didn’t have to worry about that. 

“What’s the estimated percentage of me being able to escape before Mr. Stark finds me?”

“About 31% sir. It would be higher if you knew how to navigate the building.”

Peter opened the door and glanced both ways as he thought. He took a chance and started down the left hallway.

“Could you please give me directions JARVIS?”

“Since you asked so politely.”

‘Score one for manners,’ Peter thought.

“You will want to go the other way sir. At the moment you are heading towards Master Stark.”

Peter cursed and quickly turned around. He followed JARVIS’s directions and was in the middle of a flight of stairs when the AI spoke again.

“Master Stark is about to enter your room. Once he takes note of your absence he will most likely give me instructions not to assist you anymore and will acquire your location.”

Peter cursed again and quickened his steps.

“Thanks for all your help JARVIS.”

“You are quiet welcome sir. I have not seen Master Stark so riled up in a long time. You will want to take two lefts at the bottom of the stairs and there will be a door to lead you outside.”

“Has anyone told you that you are freaking awesome,” Peter said with a grin.

There was no reply so the young man assumed that Mr. Stark had found him gone. He hurried up so he was practically jumping the rest of the stairs. He was actually a little surprised when he got outside without being caught and he headed off happily. Peter was feeling a little guilty that he had left Steve to take all the attention but on the other hand he had better things to do then be teased.

“He’s a big boy,” he thought. “Well more like a big man; a strong man with large hands.”

He quickly forced his mind from that train of thought. There was no point in getting attached to anyone; not when he would be leaving this universe and going home. Just the thought of home sent a pang of worry and fear through him and he also forced that away. Worry was fine but breaking down over it was not and would not help his situation.

XXX

Spider-Man wasn’t sure whether he should be surprised or not when he found the Avenger’s following him the next night. On the one hand they had found him pretty quickly but then again he wasn’t really trying to hide anymore. He briefly considered leading them on a chase but decided it would just complicate things. Instead he finds a nice large roof, away from the other buildings and under construction, and plops himself down with his legs dangling over the edge. It’s not long until the Avenger’s show up and he tilts his head back to look at them upside down.

“Yo, wassup?”

“Yo, wassup?” Iron Man repeated incredulously. “Who even says that?”

“It’s all the rage with the kids,” Spider-man informed him cheerfully. “You’re just out of touch old man.”

Iron Man’s arm came up with the hand glowing and Captain America quickly grabbed it. 

“Let me shoot him,” Iron Man growled. “It won’t kill him…probably.”

Spider-Man considered taunting him a little more but, with the spring board incident still fresh, decided to abstain; the hero probably would shoot him. 

“This seems like a lot of overkill; all you big shots come to see little old me.”

“We just want to talk,” Captain America said. 

Spider-Man glanced between them amused; every single one of them had come out, including Dr. Banner.

‘They don’t know who I am yet,’ he thought.

He contemplated telling them and then decided not to. He kind of wanted to see how long it would take them to figure it out.

“About what?” he asked instead.

“Who the hell are you?” Iron Man demanded and the vigilante could practically see the info scrolling inside the helmet.

“You won’t find me,” he informed him and the hero scoffed.

“Course I will. I know everything; for example I know that S.H.I.E.L.D isn’t even attempting to find you. They’re just waiting for me to do all the work.”

Spider-Man couldn’t see inside the helmet but he was fairly sure the hero was glaring at Hawkeye and Black Widow. The woman didn’t react at all and the archer just shrugged.

‘Well that explained something,’ he thought.

He had been wondering if he had caught the eye of the government and it looked like he had. Definitely not a good thing in his mind; he would rather stay away from any government organization if he had the choice.

“As I was saying, you won’t find me,” he said. “Because I don’t exist,” he added in dramatically.

He hopped to his feet and turned to lean in towards them.

“I’m a figment of your imagination,” he said in a faux whisper.

All the heroes stared at him in disbelief but Dr. Banner’s mouth twitched.

“See,” Spider-Man said while pointing at the man. “He thinks I’m funny.”

“Why are you here?”

It seemed like Captain America was trying to get the conversation back on track and Spider-Man turned his masked face towards him.

“Uh, I live here,” he responded confused.

“No, but here,” Iron Man emphasized while gesturing. “Why do this?”

Spider-Man glanced around at all of them before sighing. It was a sigh that expressed his disappointment in all of them and Hawkeye bristled; so did Iron Man if the slight metallic noise was any indication.

“Someone has to,” he responded simply. “You guys are great and all; I mean I’ll give you a call if there is an alien invasion or something but that’s just the big picture.”

This was something that had bothered him since he had arrived in this universe and he could sense the cracks that were starting to spiral through his good nature. 

“Someone has to look at the small picture; there are people getting mugged, raped, and no one tries to help.”

He know that that’s not true but this subject hit close to home and he was getting carried away. 

‘Not even you,’ he thought though it was implied.

“The police can’t do everything.”

“Neither can you,” Captain America pointed out gently.

“No, but I can do something; I can save lives, help keep families from suffering.”

He can’t keep the bitterness out of his voice and forced himself to take a moment to get himself back under control. Things had gotten far too serious and he had revealed much more than he had wanted to. 

“So impressive tech you got,” he commented casually towards Iron Man. “I hope the rest of your cameras aren’t so easily played with.”

There is a split second of silence while the other heroes try to understand the sudden change of topic and Spider-Man waited gleefully.

“It was you,” Iron Man snarled and this time Captain America can’t stop him from firing. 

Spider-Man leaped to the side with a whoop and then quickly dodged again while laughing.

“You’re getting slow in your old age,” he taunted. 

The vigilante allowed himself to get pulled into the fight, the familiar motions put him at ease, and he trusted his spider-sense to warn him if someone else decided to join in. None of them seemed interested in doing so though.

‘Probably because they can tell that I’m not really serious,’ he mused.

After all, he was only dodging and taunting; he was making no real effort to fight back. There was a sudden whistling sound, combined with a sudden jarring of his spider-sense, and he threw himself to the side. Upon coming back up he saw Captain America yelling at Hawkeye who looked completely unrepentant. 

“Rude,” Spider-Man commented even as he bent down to observe the arrow lying on the ground.

Iron Man had stopped firing to join the other heroes in their argument; it seemed he was more annoyed that the archer had disrupted his fight then anything.

“I was just testing a theory,” Spider-Man heard.

He huffed and walked over to join them.

“I don’t like you,” he informed Hawkeye even as he handed over the arrow.

He knew the man hadn’t shot to kill him but still.

“Or you,” he added to Black Widow as he knew full well it had been her idea.

The woman was studying him thoughtfully and he narrowed his eyes.

“You’re thinking; stop it.”

“You don’t like any of us,” Hawkeye snorted and Spider-Man glanced at him in surprise. 

“Course I do,” he protested. “Dr. Banner was the only person to think I was funny; I’m hilarious by the way,” he added ignoring Iron Man’s scoff. “So I like him; I have no issues with the Captain and Iron Man is incredibly fun to play with.”

He dropped down to sit cross legged on the roof, completely ignoring the scorch mark next to him.

“So, what’s your theory?”

He had aimed his question at Black Widow who merely smiled; that did not make him feel any safer.

“Oh nothing,” she reassured him which Spider-Man answered with a disbelieving snort. 

“You’re terrifying,” he responded.

He switched his gaze from hero to hero before shrugging.

“So can I go now?”

“You’re asking for permission?” Iron Man asked incredulously. 

“Isn’t that the polite thing to do in front of heroes?” he countered.

“You don’t consider yourself one?”

Spider-Man glanced at Dr. Banner as he rose to his feet. That was the only thing the man had said all night.

“Nah,” he shrugged. “I’m just your friendly neighborhood vigilante. Now, if you will excuse me gentlemen, Hawkeye and terrifying lady.”

He stepped off the side of the roof and fell. He heard the Captain say something in alarm but Spider-Man merely whopped and grabbed onto a light post at the last minute. He stopped and looked up; the heroes were standing on the roof and looked like they were arguing. Spider-Man waved at them cheerfully before continuing on his way.

XXX

Peter smiled as he finished wolfing down his hotdog; he had just gotten some new parts and was eager to do some meddling with them. Maybe they would help him find a way home; the more he learned the closer he was. 

A hand descended on his shoulder causing him to jump and he whirled around. He then proceeded to stare in shock as almost all the Avengers were standing in front of them. Only Natasha was missing and he scanned their faces in disbelief. His stalker was looking amused, Dr. Banner was looking resigned as if he had been dragged out, Mr. Stark looked annoyed and Peter wasn’t sure about the Steve. The man wasn’t smiling which worried him.

“Peter, my man, nice disappearing trick,” Mr. Stark said and the younger man turned towards him.

He offered a weak smile and tried not to fidget. He really didn’t have time for this; he should be digging through the internal organs of the broken computer he had salvaged. 

“Now it is one thing to leave me in the morning, which no one does by the way, but it is another thing altogether to pull a one nighter on Steve.” 

Peter stared at him for a moment and then his eyes snapped back towards the blonde. The man was still silent and studying him through dark eyes. For the first time Peter understood how it must have looked; Steve carrying him and massaging him and then the younger man being gone in the morning. 

“No it’s not like that,” he said quickly. “It had nothing to do with you Steve. It was all his fault,” a finger jabbed at Mr. Stark. “You were fine, that night was fine. I have no problems with anything that happened at all and it really wasn’t your fault.”

He stopped his panicked rambling upon hearing Mr. Barton’s muffled laugh; his mind did a quick rewind and he flushed. He wasn’t sure he could be more embarrassed; the only good thing was that at least Steve was smiling again. 

“I got to go,” he blurted. “I promised Angie I’d help with her roof.”

He turned quickly to get away only to have Mr. Stark slide into place on his right, preventing his escape.

“We’ll help too,” the billionaire announced brightly and Peter stared at him helplessly before turning as the others joined them.

“What?” he asked weakly.

“Someone gave us a lesson,” Steve said and Dr. Banner nodded.

“One we shouldn’t have needed to learn,” he added in quietly. 

Steve placed his hand under Peter’s elbow to lead him as the younger man had slowed down. 

‘I did this?’ he thought bemused.

He hadn’t meant to teach them anything; he had just been tired and frustrated. Nothing had seemed to be going right and he had taken it out on them. 

“Huh,” was his eloquent response. 

He was actually semi surprised that Mr. Stark still hadn’t figured it out but he figured that it wouldn’t be long now. He decided to try and relax, enjoy himself, because it wouldn’t be long before the figurative shit hit the fan. 

Angie took one look at her guests and snapped some pictures.

“No one will believe me otherwise,” she explained before easily ordering them around.

Peter stared incredulously as the older woman handled the men as if she dealt with heroes and billionaires every day. He briefly considered slipping away while everyone was busy but paused. He watched as Clint Barton challenged Tony Stark to see who could clear the rubble the fastest, and Dr. Banner was talking with Steve; the conversation bringing smiles to both of their faces. There was something about this group, these men that calmed him. They made him feel a little better; like there was still hope that he hadn’t failed. So with a soft smile he stepped forward to join them, if only for an afternoon.


	8. Chapter 8

Spider-Man looked down at the device in his hand. It was simple, nothing complex, just something that would, hopefully, teleport him across the city. This was his third attempt, the previous two had failed, and he held his breath as he pressed the trigger. There was a pause before the device lit up and there was a humming sound. Before the vigilante could get his hopes up though it started to smoke and spark.  
Spider-Man tossed the object to the ground, nearly breaking it, and stood in silent anger. He turned suddenly and smashed his fist into the ally wall. There was a cracking sound but he didn't notice; the vigilante just kept hitting it. All Spider-Man could feel was anger filling him; he was smarter than this, better than this, and yet he kept failing. This was all his fault and people could be getting killed because of his mistakes. 

A hand settled on his shoulder and the vigilante twisted to throw the person over him and into the, already crumbling, wall. The move took more strength then usual but, with his anger building, he didn't notice. His rage was blinding him as he swung his leg up in a swift kick only to hit something hard and metallic. There was a ringing noise that vibrated through his body and the force of his attack actually sent him skidding back. 

"Human Spider," someone yelled.

Slowly the angry haze that blinded him faded away and he found himself looking at Captain America. The hero was holding his shield in front of him defensively and was looking at the vigilante with wariness and worry. 

"And this is why you don’t surprise people," the vigilante said while trying to get his breathing under control.

"I called your name several times," the hero pointed out as he slowly moved out of his defensive position.

Spider-Man followed suit with a face.

"Yeah, well, you still shouldn't surprise people; especially ones that are busy beating the shit out of walls."

Turning to survey the damage he winced. It was crumbling in some places, throwing Captain America into it hadn't helped, but it was still standing which was good. This was one of the reasons why he had chosen a building on the outskirts of the city; the place was marked for demolition so the vigilante didn’t need to worry about hurting someone. 

"Is there a reason behind the property damage?"

"None of your business," Spider-Man snapped back and then sighed. "Sorry that was rude."

He turned back to the hero and noticed that he was fully decked out in his uniform; the man was still watching him warily and Spider-Man could understand why. The vigilante hadn’t held back in that brief moment they had fought so the hero had gotten a taste of how strong he was. That wasn’t a good thing and Spider-Man decided to change the topic.

"What's with the get up?" he gestured. "And where's the rest of the Scooby gang?"

"Who?" The captain asked confused.

Spider-Man stepped forward, with a laugh, and slapped him on the shoulder.

"Never mind."

The vigilante could hear quiet noises coming from the hero's ears and he grinned.

"Are you miked?"

He leaned in closer; settling his palm against the other's broad shoulder as a balance.

"Hey Iron Man, how's it going?"

Spider-Man had played with several of the billionaire's cameras since they had last met; they were how he was able to create his rudimentary machines, and to his delight he heard what sounded like muffled swearing. Captain America winced at the volume and sent the vigilante an admonishing look.

"Quiet down Iron Man. You've got a job to do, so do it."

"Sorry," Spider-Man offered though it was clear from the cheerfulness in his voice that he wasn't at all. "So what's up? Can I help?"

He could see the Captain considering the offer and waited in impatient silence. 

"No, It's best if you stay out of it," the hero finally said.

He shrugged the vigilante's hand off his shoulder, Spider-Man hadn't even realized it was still there, and jogged off barking orders. The vigilante waited a minute and then snorted.

"He's practically asking me to interfere," he said out loud before jumping onto the roof. 

From up there he could see Iron Man flying over a different part of the city; Captain America had moved out of his sight and he couldn't see anyone else.

'I wonder if, or when, I'll get to meet Thor,' he thought.

Honestly he'd rather avoid that meeting if he had a choice. Spider-Man didn't see anything going on so he headed higher up and then, to his delight, saw Hawkeye standing on one of the tallest buildings. He climbed up the wall before jumping the rest of the way onto the roof where he proceeded to dive to the side immediately.

"Don't shoot," he yelped. 

The archer released his breath in a swear word.

"I have a spider," he reported into his mike, ignoring said spider, and the vigilante pouted.

Off on a different part of the roof he noticed Dr. Banner. 

"Don't mind me," he said to Hawkeye and then plopped himself down next to the genius. "What's up Doc?"

The man gave him a pained look.

"It's bad enough that Tony does it but must you as well?"

Spider-Man couldn't help but smile.

'Look at that, they have Bugs Bunny here,' he thought amused.

"Why are you here? I thought Cap told you to stay away," Hawkeye asked.

"Yeah, me and orders don't really get along," he replied cheerfully.

"Yeah but why here?" The archer responded. "Why me?"

The vigilante could hear the exasperation in his voice and grinned.

"Well the Captain already told me to get lost, I can't fly, and I am not about to search for Black Widow."

He rested his chin on his hand to look at him. 

"Would you rather I go looking for whatever you lot are dealing with?"

There was silence for a minute before the man swore again and Spider-Man laughed. He turned back to the doctor who was watching him curiously.

"So, seriously though, what's up?"

He could see the worry in the other's eyes and smiled.

"I know someone similar to you," he commented casually.

He couldn't help but think of Dr. Connors sadly; another accident that had been caused by him.

"So I'm not worried about the whole green thing."

"What happened to him?" Dr. Banner asked quietly.

"He's got control of it now, I think."

He hadn't seen the man since he had been brought to prison. If The Lizard wasn't under control it was at least cut off.

"So anyway, how's it going? Iron Man figure out who I am yet?"

He knew the answer was no since they hadn't said anything but he was curious as to why. He had expected Iron Man to figure it out long before this. 

"Not yet," the Doctor answered.

"It's driving him crazy," Hawkeye grinned.

Spider-Man noticed that the archer didn't look away from the city as he spoke and he frowned.

'It's probably a good thing I have my spider sense,' he thought. 'Something tells me this man doesn't miss.'

"So it must be something super important to have all of you out here," he commented.

There was no response from the archer so he turned to Dr. Banner only to find the man still studying him.

"What?" he asked. "Is there something on me?"

Spider-Man made a show of jumping to his feet and patting himself down in horror. He felt a sense of achievement when an amused smile spread across the older man's face.

"You're interesting," Dr. Banner responded. "I don't understand you."

"Most people don't," Spider-Man reassured him.

He could still hear muffled noises coming from their ears and he wished that the spider had also given him super hearing.

"So how'd you get up here?" Hawkeye asked. "It's not exactly easily accessible."

"I can teleport," was the vigilante's immediate response.

'If only,' he sighed mentally. 

He wasn't about to tell them that he had climbed up the wall. Spider-Man liked keeping some of his abilities to himself. He’d revealed too much to Captain America as it was.

There was an incredulous silence coming from both of the men and the vigilante grinned. These people were way to fun to mess with. Suddenly noise erupted from their mikes and Dr. Banner leapt to his feet. He hurried over to join Hawkeye so Spider-Man followed as well. Off on the other side of the city he saw a small explosion and heard snapped orders. He was just about to jump off the roof so he could help when Dr. Banner grabbed his arm and shook his head. The man was having a hurried conversation over the mike and he kept a firm grip on Spider-Man the whole time. The vigilante was actually impressed by his strength; he had read about how strong the Hulk was but he hadn't known the Doctor could access it normally. A couple minutes later there was a loud crashing noise, loud enough that Spider-Man could hear it through the mikes, and the other men winced. 

There was dead silence for a moment before something was said and the two heroes relaxed. Hawkeye finally turned away from the city and slapped a hand down on Dr. Banner's shoulder with a grin. 

"Good job," he said before turning to Spider-Man. "We're regrouping; Captain wants you to come with. He has some questions for you."

"What? No," he replied immediately.

Both men looked at him as he slowly backed away.

"Iron Man will shoot me," he whined. "And Captain America's probably going to lecture me or interrogate me, both of which I don't want. So, yeah, just tell him I'm busy. You know; places to go, people to see yadda yadda," he babbled. 

Before either man could respond Spider-Man dove off the side of the building. He heard both of them run to the edge; it was one of the tallest buildings after all. The vigilante just bounced off a wall, grabbed a window ledge, and rolled onto a different roof.

XXX

Peter stared at the building warily before entering.

"Good evening Mr. Parker."

"Good evening JARVIS," he smiled.

As nervous as he felt whenever he came to the tower he always liked seeing, well hearing, JARVIS. A moment later he walked into the living room to seeing Tony gesturing wildly. He had a cup of coffee in one hand, shadows under his eyes, and Peter was impressed the billionaire hadn't spilled it. 

"Pull up all records of people who match the Human Spider's height."

"Yes sir."

Peter watched amazed as a list of names appeared in front of Tony; there were even little pictures beside them. The technology here was much more advanced than it was in his universe. 

"Now pull up the records of everyone that matches his weight and cross reference them."

Another list of names appeared and matched up so they could see who fit both criteria. Peter watched the whole thing confused. Surely JARVIS knew that he matched all the requirements for Spider-Man's identity. 

"Alright, show me the records of those that match both."

New information appeared in front of the billionaire and Tony started to scroll through it. 

'Wait, hold on, records?'

Peter wasn't on any records; he didn't have a driver's license or birth certificate. Still JARVIS should know that he fit the Human Spider perfectly. The young man glanced up and saw a camera in the corner blink at him. 

'Did he just wink at me?'

Was JARVIS helping him? The whole thing was confusing but the young man decided he was just going to enjoy being an enigma. 

"Boo."

Peter couldn't help but jump at the voice right by his ear and he whirled around. Clint Barton was standing behind him looking amused and the younger man scowled. As long as the archer didn't intend to harm him his spider sense wouldn't go off which, he could already tell, was going to be a pain. He was far too used to the sense helping him; he wasn't used to having to listen for other people when he always knew where they were going to attack from. 

"Don't do that," he said. "Please," he added in.

"He's not going to stop as long as you keep reacting."

Peter whirled around again to find Steve standing behind him and he placed a hand against his heart. 

"You're going to give me a heart attack Steve. Is there anyone here that isn't a ninja?"

"Tony's pretty loud," Bruce offered from behind him causing Peter to jump.

He scowled at the scientist and Clint started laughing. 

"I don't like any of you."

"You kidding? You love us," his stalker said. "You're already coming out of your shell."

The young man stared at him in confusion for a moment before it hit him. He was acting a lot more familiar with them. He was even, mentally, using their first names. 

'This wasn't supposed to happen,' he thought in dismay. 'I wasn't supposed to get attached to these lunatics.'  
Peter glanced around at the different people and noticed, with a twitch, that Natasha was watching him. He met her eyes for a moment and could have sworn she looked amused. 

"Alright food," Steve announced and headed over towards Tony with Bruce following.

The genius was busy scrolling through names and didn't even look up so Peter continued to watch with interest. Steve exchanged a nod with Bruce and then the scientist snatched the coffee mug from Tony's hand while the soldier quickly placed an arm around the billionaire's shoulder to lead him towards the kitchen. 

"What?" Tony started and then frowned. "But Steve," he whined. 

"No," the other man said firmly. "You can go back to searching for your crush later."

Peter snorted as he followed them and Tony scowled at him. 

"He's not my crush," he protested.

"Nope," Clint agreed cheerfully. "Just your obsession."

"I'll find him," the genius swore as he sat down.

Peter knew without a doubt that he would; he was actually looking forward to seeing his reaction when he did. After the meal was over Peter started washing the dishes; he could see Steve was about to say something so he tossed a drying cloth into his face. The younger man didn't resist a laugh as Steve spluttered.

"If you are so adamant about me not doing the dishes you can help out," he informed the blonde cheerfully. 

"You're stubborn," Steve said exasperated and Peter grinned. 

"Yep," he agreed as he bumped shoulders against him. "So I've been told. Aunt May always says it and so did Gwen."

Peter suddenly stopped washing and frowned. He hadn't thought of Gwen in a while; her memory still hurt but he found it wasn't as bad as before. 

"Who's Gwen?" Steve asked curiously.

"An ex-girlfriend," Peter replied. "She died."

'Because of me,' he thought sadly. 'And so will more people if I don't get back soon.'  
He shouldn’t be here; he should be working not wasting precious time, even if he enjoyed their company, because people could be dying with every minute he wasn’t at work. There was a sense of guilt that flooded him as he realized how stupid he was being; people needed him and he wasn’t there. 

"I have to go," he said abruptly.

Steve frowned but didn't argue; he just followed him back into the living room. Tony had more names glowing in front of him and had somehow grabbed another cup of coffee.

"This is yours," he said and tossed something towards him.

Peter caught it in confusion and then stared; he was holding a brand new Stark phone.

"I don't need a phone."

"Yes you do," the billionaire said firmly. "That's yours."

Peter looked between the phone and the genius. He was about to set it down, it most likely had a tracking device in it, but paused. He needed to get his teleporter working and something like this would be perfect to further his learning. The young man tucked it into his pocket, said goodbye to Steve, and left.

XXX

He was a couple blocks away when his spider sense went off. Peter casually took a look around and immediately noticed he was being followed. There was only four men so he knew he could take them but he would need to be away from other people. Peter casually continued walking and headed towards a nearby ally; as he suspected two followed him in while the other two most likely went to block the other end. The young man turned to find them closer then he would have liked and he frowned. 

"What do you want? I don't have any money," he said which was true enough.

"We don't want your money," one said with a sneer. "You're just bait."

Peter stared at both of them and then sighed. 

"You're going to kidnap me aren't you?"

The young man had really hoped this scenario wouldn't happen. He could beat them up and get away, easily too, but they most likely worked for someone else and Peter didn't want to draw more attention to himself. Or he could let them take him and trust the Avenger's to save him; he really hated leaving his life in someone else's hands, though he could probably break out if he really needed to.   
Peter shifted his weight while he thought and then frowned. He could feel the phone Tony had given him in his back pocket; the one that most likely had a tracking device in it. The young man did a quick look at his mental map and then started running. He heard something zip by and saw that they were shooting tranquilizers. He ducked around the other two men waiting at the other end and kept running; finally he turned into another alley and paused briefly. Up in the corner was one of Tony's cameras and he waved wildly at it as he ran. This time when he felt the flare of his spider sense he reluctantly didn't dodge and let the tranq hit him. He was marveling at the fact that the drugs actually worked on him even as he felt his body hit the ground.


	9. Chapter 9

Peter felt his consciousness return slowly; when he remembered what had happened he sighed. He did a quick mental check and sighed again, this time in relief. He wasn't hurt and his headache was better than the first time; the first drug use had led to feeling like Juggernaut had smashed his face into a wall. This time it felt like Rhino had smashed his face into a wall; good improvement.

'Maybe my body is adapting to the drugs?' he mused. 

He finally opened his eyes and looked around. His arms and legs were bound to a chair, but they were only tied with ropes; he could break out easily if he needed to. The young man scanned the room and frowned. At first glance it looked like an average room, but on a closer look it was strange. There was no guards but the floor had lasers crisscrossing it and there appeared to be arrow holes in the walls. Who put lasers in a hostage room? He knew the people that had kidnapped him weren't average thugs; they had used tranquillisers which normal people couldn't get easily. He was also sure the room wasn't in a warehouse; which answered his question of whether it was only his villains that used them. The confusing thing was that nothing in the room was lethal. Even Hawkeye and Black Widow would, probably, be fine; it might be a crippling wound but they would live. The arrows placed on the walls were meant to aim for the lower areas, not for the neck, heart or head. 

The lasers crisscrossing the floor weren't that strong either. He'd dealt with lasers before; these would cause injury, bleeding, and a fuck ton of pain but they, probably, wouldn't even sever a limb. Which left the main question: if they didn't want the heroes dead, what did they want? And who specifically were they targeting?

'Being on the hostage side of the situation sucks,' he concluded.

He tilted his head back in the chair to look at the ceiling; at least that looked normal. The young man didn't have to act worried; he was, for the others though, not for himself. 

Waiting was the worst part he decided. There was nothing he could do but sit there and think. No one had come to threaten him or tell him their entire plan; no one came to see him at all. That worried him; what was going on? Nothing about this situation seemed ordinary, granted he had always been on the saving side but still. Hostages were usually kidnapped to get something and yet no one had come to see him. There were no cameras to watch him and he knew the heroes were smart enough to demand evidence of his wellbeing if this was a ransom kidnapping. Everything about this seemed off to him but he didn't know why. The man let his head fall back and his eyes shut; he could feel his phone in his pocket so he knew the others were on their way.

'They can't be too professional,' he mused. 'Not if they didn't search me.'

It was several hours later, okay he might be exaggerating a bit, that the door suddenly banged open and Peter's head jerked up. Captain America stood in the doorway; his uniform was dirty and torn in several places but he didn't look hurt and wasn't bleeding; Peter let out a sigh of relief. The room must be soundproofed as well since he hadn't heard anything, and that just raised more questions. Lasers and soundproofed; who the hell even had the resources to make a sound proof hostage room?

"Watch out," Peter quickly said. "It's trapped."

"Black Widow!" The hero snapped.

Behind him the young man could hear gun shots and crashing and then the women showed up by the Captain's side. She did a quick survey of the room.

"Lasers and arrows," she told him. 

"Can you disable the lasers Iron Man?" Captain America shouted.

"Who puts lasers in a hostage room?" Peter heard the other say incredulously.

"That's what I said," the younger man muttered.

Thirty seconds later the lasers shut off and the Captain headed in. He used his shield to block the arrows as he moved to Peter's side. 

"Are you alright?" He asked as he cut through the rope binding his wrists.

The young man massaged his hands and nodded.

"I'm fine, just a migraine," he sent the hero a pointed look. "I told you this would happen."

The Captain looked ashamed and Peter sighed. He felt like he'd just kicked a puppy. 

"Honestly, I'm fine," he reassured the man.

The situation still felt odd to him; he just couldn't figure it out. No one had held him at gunpoint or strapped him with explosives; he'd only had to deal with that once, thank god. The whole thing seemed off and rather anticlimactic. His instincts were telling him something was wrong but he couldn’t figure out what it was. 

Captain America studied him but Peter hadn't lied; he really was fine with no cuts or bruises. The hero nodded and proceeded to lead the younger man out. Peter looked around the area outside, well outside his room, they were still inside a building. Men dressed in white were all over the place though several of them seemed to be running. Peter felt his spider sense go off at the same time he heard Steve yell-

"Peter!"

-and felt himself shoved away. Something whizzed by him and the hero made an odd hissing noise. When the young man turned to investigate he found a red bleeding hole in the Captain's shoulder. 

"I'm fine," the man said quickly.

Peter didn't say anything; he just moved to the side, near the wall. He knew, since he wasn't Spider-Man, he would just get in the way. As Peter avoided the fighting he made notes. There were men and women among the fighters, they were all trained, and they all wore white for some reason.

'It would be cooler when fighting,' he guessed. ‘But blood would show more easily.’ 

There were no logos or insignias on their clothes but it was clear they belonged to a group of some kind. It didn't look like the master-mind was there either. Peter tried to stay out of the fight but he highly enjoyed punching anyone that came near him. He had some anger to work out; sadly it was still there when the fight was over. 

Captain America had some more cuts and bruises and there were a couple puddles of blood on the floor, seeping towards a corner; apparently the floor wasn't level. 

"So that happened," Iron Man commented. "I just want to inform everyone here that none of this is my fault."

Captain America turned towards Peter, taking his mask off to become just Steve. 

"Are you alright?"

"Fine," Peter responded shortly.

He turned on his heel to exit the building. There was silence behind him and then he heard the others following. Outside was Steve's bike and two shiny, expensive looking, cars. 

"Are you sure you're okay?" Steve repeated.

"I said I'm fine," Peter snapped. 

There was more silence and then Steve wordlessly offered Peter a helmet for his bike. The young man ignored it and stepped into one of the cars instead. He could see the heroes talking quietly, almost arguing, before Tony joined him.

"It's not Steve's fault," The genius told him as he started driving.

"I know, 'cause it's yours."

"What? No it's not," Tony protested.

Peter felt a small smile creep onto his face as the genius took a very sharp turn. His driving was dangerous but it was fun and the young man let the argument distract him. They arrived at the tower at the same time as the others and Peter's scowl returned. He stormed past them, hearing them whisper behind his back, and up the stairs; he did not have the patience for the elevator. Even JARVIS was being silent.   
Bruce was waiting for them when he got there, holding a first aid kit. A relieved smile appeared on his face when their eyes met.

"Good," he said. "Are you alright?"

Peter returned his smile and nodded.

"I'm fine."

His scowl came back when he heard the others walk in and he snatched the first aid kit from Bruce. Peter whirled around to face the others and pointed at Steve.

"Sit the fuck down," he ordered.

There was a stunned silence as Steve dropped into a chair quickly.

"Shirt off."

He could hear Tony start to open his mouth and cut him off before he could say anything.

"Shut up, Tony."

He walked to stand between Steve's legs and doused the bullet wound with a healthy, maybe too heathy, amount of disinfectant causing the man to hiss. 

"Who do you think you are?" Peter demanded. "I don't care that you're god damn Captain America; never do that for me again. How dare you? Is taking a bullet so normal for you?"

He wasn’t being particularly gentle while checking to see if the bullet was still in the wound and he ignored the gob-smacked look on Steve's face.

"You could have been seriously hurt. What if the bullet had gone higher," he tapped the man's neck. "Or to the left," he tapped Steve's heart this time. "I don't care how kick ass you are; you don't come back from that," he hissed angrily. "What if you died? Because of me? I’ve seen enough death and you are not going to become one of them. I-"

Steve cut him off by sliding his good hand into Peter's hair and pulling him down into a kiss. The younger man melted into it and placed his hand on other's shoulder to steady himself. It felt good, safe, and Peter had been touch deprived for a long time. Since Gwen really.

That brought Peter back to the present and he jerked away. Images flashed through his mind: Gwen dead because of him, Uncle Ben laying on the ground in a puddle of blood, Aunt May in a broken heap next to J. Jonah Jameson, buildings on fire. What was he thinking? He couldn't have this; Peter didn't have the right to this. Not to mention it would hurt Steve when Peter left; Steve who was looking at him worriedly. Peter did the only smart thing he could; he turned and ran.


	10. Chapter 10

Peter paced back and forth; he walked to the end of the street, turned, and walked back. Rinse and repeat. He still didn’t know what to do; he really should go and apologize to Steve. If for anything he should thank the man for saving him from being kidnapped. Sure Peter could have gotten free himself but the soldier had still gone through lasers and faced flying arrows for him. He paused for a second as he thought about that and suddenly took off running. From force of habit he still turned a corner to take a different street and even hopped onto a rood to make his travel faster and avoid cameras. Because of his speed it didn’t take him too long before he skidded into the Avenger’s tower.

“JARVIS?”

“Thirteenth floor Sir.”

“Thanks,” Peter let out even as he practically flew up the stairs and into the room. “It was a trap,” he blurted into the sudden silence. “They didn’t want to kill anyone; none of the lasers were at a high enough frequency to even sever limbs let alone cause death and they weren’t shooting to kill only wound.”

Steve wouldn’t have even been shot if it weren’t for Peter but he shoved that thought away for the moment. 

“And the floor had a slight slope which caused everything to slide down. They wanted Steve’s blood.”

He stopped talking and placed his hands on his knees to breath. Sure he had more stamina then most people but he had just ran to the tower and up thirteen flights of stairs. 

“Uh yeah, we know.”

What.

“What?” Peter asked as he looked up at Tony.

“Two of the people in this room are genius’s Peter,” the billionaire pointed out as they all stared at him. “We figured this out ages ago.”

Oh.

“Oh,” the young man replied weakly and then sank to the ground behind the couch and rested his back against it. 

He really didn’t want to see any of their faces right now not to mention everything was catching up now that the panic had faded. Of course they had figured it out; Peter had been stupid for even worrying about it. They were the Avengers; it was only natural they had it all under control while Peter had nothing under control. His whole life was unravelling beneath him; there wasn’t any strands of web left to hold him up. 

He buried his head into his arms as he felt each strand snapping; all the cracks spreading. Peter had been doing a passible job of holding things together. He had even gotten a teleporter working and it had stopped disintegrating on him. This accomplishment should have made him happy; it was one step closer to home but all it reminded him of was the fact that he was still here. 

People were dying and he was still here. Every time he shut his eyes he could hear Aunt May calling for him; could hear screams. Sleeping just brought dreams of blood; blood he was helpless to stop. 

He felt a heavy hand rest on his shoulder and heard a voice though he couldn’t make out the words through the thundering of his heart. 

So he avoided sleep the best he could; getting enough to make sure he was able to function properly. The nightmares often woke him up so the point was moot anyway. The only time he felt a little better; when the screams grew muffled was when he was around the Avengers. They didn’t mend anything but they allowed him to forget and he couldn’t. Peter wasn’t allowed to forget what had happened; what was happening because of him. 

There were more voices and then something warm was placed over him. 

Even now with his eyes shut he could see the blood and hear screams. How many bodies lay unmoving in New York’s streets because of him? Each second he was here could mean another life gone. How many children were being orphaned? How many families were losing loved ones? 

“Peter,” a soft voice came through the haze and he lifted his eyes up slowly. The haze of blood lightened slightly allowing him to see the room again. 

The only people currently still in it were Bruce and Steve; both of which looked worried. Steve was kneeling before him and Bruce held a glass of water. Peter took in their worried eyes tiredly and went to rest his head back in his arms only for Steve to pull it into forward against the man’s shoulder instead. The younger man immediately stiffened up and Steve sighed. 

“It’s alright,” he murmured. “You can be weak Peter.”

No he couldn’t; Peter didn’t have the time to be weak. He had so much to do and he was wasting time even now. Steve slid a hand into his hair to hold him in place so the young man couldn’t run again. 

“Breath Peter,” Bruce said calmly. “Breath and try to think of a relaxing place. Whatever is worrying you can wait.”

No it really couldn’t. Peter couldn’t make people wait for him when they needed him and he hadn’t even realized he was having trouble breathing till right then.

“Breath,” Bruce said again. “You can’t do anything in this state. You need to calm down.”

‘Calm down,’ Peter thought slightly hysterically. ‘How am I supposed to calm down?’

“I’m going to count to five Peter,” Bruce told him. “I want you to breath with me. In for five and out for five.”

Steve ran his fingers through Peter’s hair soothingly as the young man followed Bruce’s instructions. It took a bit but his breath finally started to slow as he focused on the counting and Steve’s breaths. 

‘They are right,’ he realized. ‘I can’t do anything when I’m like this.’

He felt gratefully for the softness of Steve’s shirt beneath his forehead, and the steady thump of the man’s heart, but he eventually pulled back and accepted the glass of water from Bruce. The young man could feel a strand of web strengthening under his feet. It was fragile, not a full web, it would barely hold his weight but it was something to hold him up for the moment. 

“Drink slowly,” Bruce ordered as Peter made to gulp the water down and the young man slowed down as commanded. 

“Thanks,” he muttered quietly.

He knew he should stand up and move but it felt so nice to be there. With a blanket draped over his back and two people he could call friends beside him. Bruce stood and brought back another glass of water. This one Peter drank more slowly without being told and remained still as Bruce felt his forehead.

“Have you always had anxiety attacks?” the man asked him professionally.

Peter frowned, shook his head, and then paused. There had been several breakdowns after Uncle Ben and Gwen. He’d never thought of them as that though.

“A couple,” he offered hesitantly. 

“Can you talk about it?”

Peter blanched at the thought and Bruce nodded.

“Alright.”

Steve was still running his fingers through Peter’s hair which felt really nice but he needed to distance himself, he still didn’t deserve this, so he pulled back. 

“I need to go.”

“Absolutely not,” Steve said firmly and Peter stared at him. “You are, at the very least, staying the night Peter.”

Peter took in a breath to argue but the other man shook his head. 

“No; I’ve had a panic attack before. You are not going off to be by yourself. You are going to stay here, have a good meal, and sleep in an actual bed. Am I understood?”

Peter just stared at him for a moment before nodding with a small smile.

“Yes sir.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I actually started writing this before my other Spider-Man stories and decided I should post it here as well. I hope you all enjoy the ride and let me know what you think.


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